TARGET ON!
by Fumiko Matsubara
Summary: "So to summarize," Miki took a deep breath, trying to keep herself together. "Three things happened after I transferred schools: I repeated my third year since I didn't take my finals, which also dropped me to Class E, and now we're suddenly tasked by the government to assassinate the creature who apparently blew up the moon." She looked at the government agent. "Am I getting it?"
1. Time for a New Environment

**Disclaimer: Anything you recognize belongs to their respective owners.**

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**A/N: I'd like to inform you that this is a side character and OC-centric story. So please don't be confused if your favourite main characters won't be appearing much.**

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**TARGET ON!**

**"Time for a New Environment"**

To say that Miki was flabbergasted is an understatement.

Surely, this was some kind of misunderstanding. There must've been some complications regarding her transfer. She must've heard wrong. She just couldn't believe what she was informed of.

Standing in front of the chairman with the oak desk separating the two of them, Miki held back her disbelief. "Me? Repeat my third year? Chairman Asano, I passed my entrance exams without a struggle. Is it not possible for me to just attend high school and, at the same time, catch up with the previous material that I wasn't able to tackle?"

The chairman didn't budge though, shrewd violet eyes making contact with her piercing crimson ones. They coldly stared at each other's eyes for a while, completely disregarding the other figures in the room.

After what felt like hours, but was only minutes, the chairman finally replied, "That is a reasonable proposition, which I'm certain you would be able to execute remarkably."

Miki narrowed her eyes even further. "Then-!"

"However," the chairman abruptly cut her off, "That would have been possible if you had finished at least one semester in your previous school year which you, unfortunately, couldn't do so."

She then tore her eyes off of his, gritting her teeth as she fought back her anger. "Then why am I attending the lowest class? Aren't my grades enough for me to study at the main building?"

"Outputs are a crucial requirement for you to do so, which includes your final test results, Yamazaki-san." He said coolly.

Miki looked at him in the eye once again. "Chairman Asano, the situation is beyond my control. I couldn't help it if I had to leave right before finals."

"Miki." The man behind her hissed quietly.

In milliseconds, she cast a glance at her worried father then soon she felt herself calming down. She knew all too well that losing her cool will only worsen her situation.

"If I couldn't convince you, sir, any further. Can I at least know what to do in order for me to be able to transfer classes?"

Gazing at her, a smile worked its way on the chairman's face, "Do what the Class E students had to do. Place within the top 50 on your mid-terms and I will personally grant you permission to start attending classes here in the main campus."

"As simple as that?" Miki raised her eyebrows at that, suspicious.

"As simple as that." He confirmed.

Miki then lowered her head in deep thought, contemplating his answer. From what she knew, mid-terms in Japan normally begin towards the end of May. So, unless she was required to start attending classes at the beginning of March for adapting purposes, it would only take her less than two months surviving in that run-down building before transferring classes, had she placed within the top 50.

Her Japanese has well-taken cared enough in both writing and speaking terms, so she would have fewer problems learning everything in another language. Not to mention she already tackled all of her first semester lessons, so doing well in her exams and placing within the required ranking would be an easy feat for her, of course, while keeping in mind of the competitive students in the school.

Her eyes subtly glinted in anticipation. They want her to excel despite the poor learning environment? Fine then, challenge accepted.

She raised her head and looked at the chairman once again. "I'll take that arrangement into consideration, Chairman Asano. I'll be sure not to disappoint anyone in this room."

"Any more questions?"

She shook her head, "No. There are none, sir."

The chairman then hummed softly then dismissed her with a raise of a hand. "You are dismissed, Yamazaki-san. Although I would like to have a brief discussion with your parents," he gestured to the two stern-looking adults behind Miki, "in private. Would you perhaps like to wait outside as we do so?"

"Well of course, sir." She quickly muttered an apology to her parents before walking past them and headed towards the double doors. She turned to face him one last time and bowed respectfully. "Thank you for having me, Chairman."

Then she left.

* * *

Later that day, Miki apologized once again during the ride home. Her parents just simply told her that they didn't mind at all, seeing that the matter was not a big deal at all.

"However, the fact that you've confronted the chairman without breaking a sweat shouldn't be overlooked." By the driver's seat, her father sharply looked at her with the mirror.

'Oh boy...' Miki buried herself further in her hoodie, bracing for the worst.

Then his gaze softened. "That was really brave of you."

Miki growled softly and glared at him. "Stop playing with my feelings, old man."

Her father snickered then turned his eyes back to the road.

"Stop teasing her." Her mother said dryly, pinching his arm albeit painfully.

"O-Oi! Watch your nails, woman!"

Miki chuckled at her parent's cute interaction, slowly relieving some of her stress.

"Ah. By the way Miki," her mother turned towards her with a concerned look, "I'm sure you've seen what happened earlier?"

Miki nodded with a slight frown, "You mean the future Class E students being a laughing stock of the entire campus? Even if they were buddies with them beforehand?" She leaned back to her seat, hands behind her head, "Yeah, I've seen it all."

"Are you still planning to transfer classes after the midterms?"

She scoffed at that. "Nah. I changed my mind."

Her mother then frowned slightly. "You made a promise to the chairman, Miki."

"To place within the top 50?" Miki raised an eyebrow, "That I did, which I am certainly going to do. But to transfer to one of those classes with such cancerous atmosphere? As if." She lowered her arms then crossed them. "And besides, the chairman will only grant me permission to transfer classes. It's not like I have to transfer right after the exam results; that would need both mine and your consent to have me transfer."

Meeting her mother's emerald eyes with her own crimson, Miki smiled bitterly. "So, I can still stay in Class E while in the top 50. No promises are broken. As simple as that." She more or less mimicked Chairman Asano's tone at the end.

"You're impossible." Her mother sighed at her answer and shook her head exasperatedly before going back to her own business.

Meanwhile, her father sighed softly. "Miki," he glanced at her through the mirror.

"Hmm?"

"Whatever your decision may be, as long as you graduate and live a stable life, we're fine with it."

Miki just hummed in her seat, not bothering to reply.

* * *

When it comes to sticking to her own judgement, in Miki's dictionary, defying an authority also means breaking the rules. Well, not necessarily breaking it head-on, but to find a loophole around it and use it to her advantage.

But if she was ever confronted about it, she could always find the most reasonable excuses, especially with what is not specified in the rules.

Always doing it as she grows up, Miki had been twisting the rules with ease. Specifically, the rules that had to do with certain standards and requirements. But Miki wouldn't go that far. She may be seen as rebellious but she is no delinquent; she only twists the rules for small matters.

"Say, Yamazaki-san. Why are you wearing the boys' uniform?" A light-haired tall boy called Sugaya asked her as they climbed the mountain towards the school building.

Small matters such as her school uniform.

Miki briefly glanced at her uniform then shrugged. "I just don't have the right figure to wear the girls' uniform. Getting a new uniform tailored to my size will take a long time. Besides, the boys uniform fit me more comfortably."

Chiba, a long-fringed boy frowned slightly at that. "But aren't you breaking rules?"

She shook her head. "Not really. There are no rules against students modifying their uniforms and there are certainly no rules against wearing the boys' uniform."

"This school is not really strict with the dress code in the first place," a boy with a buzz cut named Okajima mused.

"Well that's ironic," Miki commented dryly, followed by various signs of agreement from the boys. They clearly know what she was implying.

About twenty minutes ago, Miki approached the trio for directions, assuming that they were also heading towards the old building. After brief introductions were made, Miki found herself sticking with them. The three certainly didn't mind the additional company, naturally letting her join their group.

The conversation was mostly held by Sugaya and Okajima while Chiba just listened to them quietly and Miki would only speak if they asked her something, even if the question is quite perverted.

An example of this was when Sugaya and Okajima were mildly arguing about their perception of the female body, which for some reason lead Okajima to compare the appeal of a girl with a small or a big chest.

"Miki, which do you prefer? Small or big boobs?!" He suddenly asked the unsuspecting female.

She stared at him blankly. "Neither," she replied dryly.

Sugaya elbowed him in the stomach and hissed at him, "You don't just ask that question to a girl!"

"I need another perspective! Miki seems open-minded enough to respond!" Okajima argued, rubbing his stomach to ease the pain.

"And what if she doesn't want to?" Sugaya crossed his arms, "At least think before you ask such questions! You don't want to scare the only girl who actually talks to you."

Okajima froze briefly then quickly turned towards Miki. "You're not going to ignore me, are you?"

"I might." She replied curtly, causing Okajima to flinch.

"O-oh..." Then he frowned.

"If you're not careful that is..." Miki returned his frown with a teasing smirk. "Dirty talk is fine with me but don't take it too far."

Okajima suddenly brightened up then gave Sugaya an 'I told you so' look; the latter rolling his eyes at that.

"By the way, how come you said neither?"

Then they're back at the previous topic.

Miki shrugged her shoulders. "I'm more of a butt person," she answered.

Both Sugaya and Chiba don't know how to react to her answer, so they just kept quiet.

Meanwhile Okajima, "Why?"

"It was probably because most girls prefer it..." She paused briefly, still formulating her answer. "I mean you've noticed that nowadays, no matter what size, a lot of girls hide their cleavages by wearing loose clothing. But they also wear shorts and skinny jeans or leggings, which gives you a full view of their behind," then she shrugged, "A lot of them believed that the butt makes up the most of their figures, followed by the waist, hips and maybe even thighs. And I kinda agree with them."

There was a rather long pause and the dazed look in Okajima's eyes implied that he is still processing what Miki had said (though she was only bullsh*ng him with her answer).

While waiting for his answer, Miki's eyes darted towards Sugaya and Chiba who were giving them incredulous looks, well, particularly Chiba who seemed mildly disturbed. She subtly studied his expression to decipher his thoughts, albeit a bit hard since the long-banged boy is purposely trying to show as little emotion as possible. But from the way she could see him clenching his jaw and the way his fingers lightly twitched, Miki came to three conclusions that he could be, **a)** surprised or amazed that she can handle the sleazy Okajima without being sleazy herself, **b)** disturbed that she gave an elaborate reason for her butt preferences or **c)** irritated at her for some reason.

Then a hilarious thought crossed her mind._ Maybe it's because I didn't punch Okajima in the face instead... _She would really do that, actually. But she just met him, so she can't damage the poor guy yet. Besides, she's been forced into sleazy talks way worse than boobs and butts before so it's not like she'll be beating him up anytime soon. That is, if Okajima began to sexualize any of their classmates, then he had another thing coming worse than just a plain old beating.

But he wouldn't do that with her around, right?

Right?

_Ugh no, he might, _Miki immediately got rid of that horrendous thought.

Either way, whatever Chiba is thinking about the situation at the moment, Miki will agree with him wholeheartedly. The same goes for Sugaya, who looks to be more on the amazed side. In the first place, riding along sleazy talks is not an easy task.

She could be wrong though, about their thoughts that is. Maybe they just kept quiet because they find sleazy talks uncomfortable. There are those types of people after all. Then again, that would contradict the fact that Sugaya can still formulate his own opinion from an artist's perspective.

_Does that mean that only Chiba-kun is uncomfortable being in the radar of sleazy conversations? _She mused.

It would make sense why he looks more disturbed than Sugaya.

With that final conclusion in mind, Miki decided to stick to her own judgement unless either one of the two proved her otherwise.

Once she was sure that the two (finally) felt her gaze on them, Miki shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly at them followed by a barely audible sigh. Now hopefully, they would understand that she was basically telling them she's used to the sleaziness. (She remembered when one of her cousins once asked her what the quotation hand gesture meant. She had a short mental breakdown because of that.)

Chiba let out a small 'o' when he got the message then nodded at her in response. He then told Sugaya about it, the artist soon nodding at her after.

"Oh! You're right!"

_Oops._ She nearly forgot that she was still talking to Okajima.

Miki quickly turned her gaze back to him and found him about to ask another question again. She figured that the whole butt thing might have kept the boob-lover quite invested.

Although Okajima looked thoughtful at the moment, there was a subtle glint in his eyes like he had, what he thought, was a brilliant idea and is about to ask her opinion about it.

"Does this whole butt thing work with guys too?"

_Or he would just show himself off unnecessarily in hopes of attracting girls..._ For a moment there, Miki felt bad for him. Although, as embarrassing as it sounds, it's probably better than the horrendous thought of him sexualizing their classmates.

Delete that last bit.

Miki stopped her tracks a bit then gave his entire behind a once over. She then looked at Okajima blankly and straight up told him, "You're not getting any girls with that flat butt of yours."

Okajima went silent at that, freezing in his spot.

Sugaya suddenly let out a "Pfft...!" sound and covered his mouth while Chiba had his back turned, shoulders visibly shaking.

"She totally saw right through you," Sugaya grinned, elbowing Okajima, thus waking him up from his trance.

Meanwhile, Miki tried suppressing her own laugh, though failing at it, resulting to look like a wobbly smirk. She watched as Chiba, who probably sobered up, turned back to face them with his face void of any emotion.

Well, she would've believed him if it weren't for the fact that_ his face is literally turning purple what the heck?!_

"W-we should get going," he told them, voice obviously shaking.

"You laughed," Okajima, who looked mildly offended, said to him almost childishly.

"No, I didn't," Chiba briskly replied then continued his tracks. "We really should get going now."

They didn't follow yet though but instead watched his back as he was about to leave them. Then after a few feet away, Chiba was about to call them again.

Then suddenly, he snorted with laughter, a rather loud one. Realizing this, Chiba quickly covered his mouth with both hands, shoulders violently shaking.

"YOU WERE LAUGHING!"

* * *

_When they said that the Class E campus is pretty run down, I was more or less expecting an abandoned-looking concrete building with moulds on walls, broken windows, dysfunctional class equipment, and no air conditioning…_

Miki opened her shoe locker, barely flinching at how creaky it was, and frowned at the amount of dust falling.

_It just had to be made of wood…_

She sighed softly, changing into her indoor shoes while her eyes darted around her line of sight, sharply observing the interior of the entrance hallway.

The first thing she noticed is the wooden planks on the floor that are either broken or lost their nails then the wooden wall panels are barely holding up. There are a few missing ceiling planks, probably from soaking too much water during the rainy season, that she could already see the roof which had a lot of small holes.

Then Miki's eyes sweep through the shelves of shoe lockers, noting at how dusty and unmaintained they were and at least ten of the lockers are broken. Her face then warped into a fit of disgust at the number of moulds building upon each and every wooden corner.

_No renovations, no maintenance, no cleaning, no fixing, and no signs of life…_

Her eyes darted on her left hand, which was strangely starting to feel warm all of a sudden, and saw a small ray of sunlight caressing the back of her hand. No sooner after, the rest of her body started to feel warmer as multiple rays of sunlight phased through the gaps between the wall panels and the small holes on the roof, thus illuminating the once dark and gloomy atmosphere of the entrance hallway.

_The upperclassmen didn't even bother livening things up…_

Which is kind of a waste, actually. An isolated yet active school building surrounded by the beautiful wonders of nature sounds like a more comfortable and peaceful learning environment. Minus the poor maintenance of the school equipment, the peaceful setting is enough to enable a young creative mind to produce fresh and excellent ideas that could help them with their studies or their field of interests.

Nature alone can calm a heart and clear a mind but if the old building was ever properly maintained, students might be more eager to learn and improve.

_If anything, the condition of the school building isn't the most concern…_

Miki's frown deepened, picking up her outdoor shoes almost absent-mindedly and placed them inside her shoe locker.

_It's the discrimination…_

She then closed her locker rather forcefully.

"Uhh Jenny-san!"

"Yes?" She spun to look at Sugaya with Chiba and Okajima behind him. "Oh, was I spacing out for too long?" There was a subtle concerned glint on Sugaya's eyes, Miki didn't miss that and just made an assumption.

They started walking through the hallways and towards their classroom. "Ah no, it wasn't that. We've been calling you but it's like you can't hear us at all," Okajima answered instead.

"You're probably have been calling me by my family name," she briefly explained. "We don't really use surnames back there so I can't really get used to it just yet."

They soon reached the entrance of their classroom. "So, how do you want us to address you then?" Sugaya took it upon himself to ask.

"Ah," reaching for the door and sliding it slightly, Miki faced them with a small smile.

"You can call me Miki..."

* * *

**A/N: I've actually have been writing this fic since last year September and actually finished 8 chapters that time on ms word. But me and my dumbass self haven't thought of saving them on my docs and oh my god, around early January, my laptop just crashed on me thus deleting all my works TT**

**Also, updates will be very slow since I don't have a laptop to properly write anything. I managed to publish this chapter after borrowing my aunt's laptop for a short time. Although if you want to see any of my ideas regarding the events in Target On, (WARNING: **shameless self-promotion**) you can check my tumblr _fumiko-matsubara_ where I'm more active.**

**Thank you for reading and please review if you ever had the time! :)**

**~松原**


	2. Class E Time

**Disclaimer: Anything you recognize belongs to their respective owners.**

* * *

**A/N: I'd like to inform you that this is a side characters and OC-centric story. So please don't be confused if your favourite main characters won't be appearing much.**

* * *

**WARNING: This chapter contains frequent timeskips.**

**And also very slow updates.**

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**TARGET ON!**

**"Class E Time"**

"Yamazaki... Jenny-san?"

"Here."

"Good! Next, Yoshida Taisei-kun?"

Miki slumped in her seat, which was conveniently at the very back of the classroom, with her arms crossed and head lowered. Her copper blonde waves, which she has recently started to pull up in a high ponytail, managed to find a way to fall around her face, thus temporarily obscuring her facial features from a frontal view.

_Maybe it's a bad idea to straighten my bangs only. _She briefly acknowledged the long and thick stresses that covered her right eye because of her position, at the same time blowing away a shorter lock that tickled her nose.

As the young teacher in front of the class continued to talk, Miki's crimson eyes discreetly swept across the classroom, silently observing her new classmates from the back of their heads. She recognized some of them when they were being scorned and laughed at by their former classmates while she waited for the private discussion between her parents and the chairman to finish.

Some of the students she recognized are seated at the front: the girl with ash brown hair in a low ponytail and a guy with ginger ombre (presumably dyed) hair, then in front of her: the girl with dark twin braids and another with wavy peach hair. They all had their heads lowered like everyone else.

Subconsciously, she suddenly felt her heart tightened when she took notice of their lifeless forms and downcast expressions, mirroring the ones she witnessed yesterday.

Well, save for the bulky guy that was seated two seats on her right. Like her, he was leaning behind his chair, slightly tilting it backwards, but his hands were stuffed inside his pockets instead. Rather than the forlorn expressions on her classmates' faces, this one looked more disinterested and a little annoyed. Unlike the rest of her classmates, he seemed to have already accepted his fate of becoming a misfit in their school.

_He's brave, I'll give him that_, Miki silently mused, _but a little stupid if he thinks that everyone else here is as goal-less as he assumes..._

_Also,_ she surveyed how her classmates were seated, _if we take note of how the seating plan was arranged according to gender, I'm supposed to be sitting next to him._ She narrowed her eyes at the teacher in front of them, _I wonder why Yukimura-sensei made me sit away from him._

Yukimura Aguri is a young teacher who has been teaching Class E students for a year now. Miki could easily tell how very passionate she is when it comes to teaching and she is somewhat touched that, despite the gloomy atmosphere inside their classroom, the young teacher is very encouraging and still beaming at them.

_However, _she sweatdropped, _another thing about her bothers me..._

"Is there something wrong?" Aguri asked once she realized that no one among the class was listening anymore.

"Sensei," a voice rang out. Miki glanced at the familiar guy with the ombre hair. _Maehara, I think that's his name, _she mentally noted.

"What's up with that shirt?" He asked. Instantly, Miki's eyes flashed towards the teacher's mentioned shirt once again. She could clearly see what was on the teacher's shirt but couldn't make out on what the character even is.

_Wait, is that a pickle?_ She squinted her eyes at the green, whatever creature that is, character on the shirt. _Or a cactus? And what's a flower doing on its head? Is it supposed to be a hat or actually its hair? But what are- ah no, those ones are meant to be hands... I think._

Giving up, Miki leaned on her desk, resting her head on her palm. _Whatever that is, it looks very out of place. The green is way too vibrant compared to the pastel-coloured flowers and the neutral background just makes it even worse on the inconsistency. Just what of wacko would think that design would sell well?!_

"I like the design! It's cute!" Mildly offended, the teacher protested. "Right?"

No one agreed.

_Her tastes in fashion are just as out of place,_ Miki sweatdropped. _But if she likes it then there's no stopping her..._

* * *

When the first period ended, Aguri briefly left the classroom to prepare herself for the next class. Although the classroom is still fairly quiet, soon after, some students began to move out of their seats and towards their group of friends.

Miki herself didn't bother to move from her seat, seeing that both Chiba and Sugaya, who she can actually consider as her friends, are seated near her. Okajima, on the other hand, was already with another group he seems to be friends with.

"So, what do you think of our new teacher?" A voice asked suddenly. Miki assumed that it came from the small group of girls that are gathered around the front seats.

Another girl replied, "I like her!" Miki was slightly taken aback at how bubbly her voice is. "She's so nice!"

"Heh, don't be fooled," the bulky guy beside her suddenly spoke up, which caused most of their classmates to look at him in an instant.

Miki shifted in her seat to face him properly. She raised an eyebrow and felt her mouth moving on its own, "'About what?"

"That teacher," the bulky guy turned to her, "It would only take a while before she'll start mocking us like the misfits we are," he leaned even further in his seat, "That whole 'nice teacher' thing of her's gotta be nothin' but a front."

His words instantly dampened the mood in the room even further, some classmates immediately lowered their heads while others turned away.

Miki, on the other hand, just rolled her eyes at the response and sighed. "If that were the case, then what's the point of her even tolerating us?" At that moment, she knew that everybody was already looking at her. She calmly returned each of their gazes and made herself continue.

"We're the End Class, dude," she felt her jaw clenching in pure discomfort when those words came out of her mouth. "Teachers won't get fired for belittling us, heck, they're even expected to actually treat us that way."

She then sent a pointed look at the bulky guy, clearly directing her next words to him especially. "The same goes for Yukimura-sensei. Her putting up a front absolutely made no sense when she's already expected to treat us like trashes. She's only gonna drain herself if that were the case," she shrugged. "Which, I think, is just a foolish move."

"So you're saying that she's... genuine?" A rather feminine voice hesitantly asked.

Miki turned to the source of where the voice came from and found herself locking eyes with a short girl with wavy ginger hair and green eyes. "Of course she is," she gave the girl a comforting smile, which was then brightly returned, "the most genuine adult I've ever met so far..."

Her smile faltered a little bit but she immediately brushed it off.

"Think of it this way," her eyes roamed over her classmates who were all attentively listening to her, "Someone in this school actually cares."

She patiently watched how her classmates' expressions started to brighten as the weight of her words began to gradually sink in. _I know it wasn't much, _she smiled bitterly, _but with all what happened yesterday, _her jaw tightened, _they need this._

Sighing deeply, Miki turned once again to the bulky guy, who hadn't given any signs of response at her earlier words. "Look," she started strongly, "I understand why you're doubtful. I mean, after all, those adults back in the main campus are never a good example of what a good teacher should be like."

Following her words are muffled laughs from their classmates who are still listening, even the bulky guy allowed himself to scoff at her blunt insult towards their old teachers.

She lightly smiled reassuringly at them. "Just take it easy."

The dark gloomy atmosphere inside the classroom was soon lifted, even by just a little, and almost everyone went back to their previous business as if the earlier incident never happened. For a few moments, Miki and the bulky guy just kept their gazes at each other, until the latter groaned in response and turned away from her. Rather satisfied, Miki shifted her sitting position and let herself relax in her seat.

"Hey"

The same gruff voice, but a bit more toned down, called out to her.

"Hmm?"

She turned to him a little, noticing at how much he discreetly stole glances of her. "You just transferred here, didn't you? You passed the entrance exams." He stated pointedly. Again, Miki felt a few prying eyes on them.

"Yeah. That, I did." She sighed.

"Then how'd you get in this class?"

Miki just shrugged. "I didn't finish the first semester at my old school, so I repeated my third year."

He snorted at her answer. "Then why'd you choose to study here when you'd know you're gonna be dropped in this hell?"

"Dunno. Not my choice to stay here." She replied shortly.

The bulky guy didn't respond after that, thus abruptly ending their conversation unsatisfactorily. _This guy..._ Miki sighed,_ is surprisingly hopelessly awkward for someone this rough..._

"Say... Teresaka-kun, was it?" The guy barely grunted in response.

She quickly let her eyes survey his entire built physique for a moment. "I've been wondering, actually. You're much bulkier than most guys your age... An athlete perhaps?"

Terasaka frowned. "Nah. The closest thing I could ever do a sport is when I do streetball."

"Gym, then?"

"Yeah, I had a membership at Akatsuki's." He replied which caused Miki to turned to him more attentively. "Oh, could it be the one near Cyberia?" She asked once more.

Nodding at her mutely, Terasaka also asked back. "Yeah, why'd you ask?"

"I'm planning to sign up for the whole month. I haven't been getting any proper workout lately since I moved out." With a light shrug, Miki replied. She casually ran her hands through her fringes before putting them behind her head.

Terasaka mildly grunted. "Suit yourself then, uh..."

"Miki."

"Right, Miki..." He trailed off before whisking his head away.

_That's the second time... _A bit annoyed, Miki rolled her eyes with a scoff. "Geez, just how awkward can you get?" She muttered loud enough for the bulky guy to hear. Surely, she got the reaction she wanted from him. Terasaka quickly turned back to her, obviously angered, with veins popping out on his head.

"I'm not!" He loudly barked, fist threateningly clenched. "I don't even wanna talk to you in the first place! You're the one who's making it awkward!" He pointed an index finger at her almost accusingly.

Unfazed by his sudden hostility, Miki blankly stared at the finger. Slowly, her eyes made their way to his face. "Oh, I'm sorry..." Terasaka was slightly taken aback with how her sharp crimson orbs bore through him, almost threateningly.

"But what got you so worked up, big guy?" Miki grinned faintly at him as if challenging him. "I'm just making an assumption, which is my fault, I know. So no need to get defensive, I don't even know if that's the truth or not."

No response.

_Got him. _With nothing else to say, Miki nonchalantly waved him off before letting herself relax in her seat again.

"Wow, she got you on that one!" A blonde guy, probably one of Terasaka's friends, mercilessly teased the guy.

Miki soon tuned out the conversation going on her right, barely missing Terasaka snapping at him. She turned her head back at the front of the classroom, only for her calm crimson eyes to meet with panicked silver ones.

"You're out of your mind," Sugaya stated, eyes still wide and full of panic.

Miki just simply brushed off his concerns with a shake of her head. "Oh really..."

* * *

The bell rang, signalling the end of the fourth period as well as the start of lunchtime. The moment Aguri left the classroom, almost immediately, all the students started to put away their belongings, mild chatters resonated the once quiet room.

"Still, you're out of your mind," Sugaya repeated while they are taking out their boxed lunches.

Miki rolled her eyes at that. "Am most certainly not," she shortly replied before moving her desk next to Sugaya's. "Yeah, sure I talked back to him out of habit, my bad, but it's not like what I said was wrong," she sat down, arms crossed with an eyebrow quirked, "Isn't it?"

"Well," Sugaya started, sheepishly scratching his head. "I wasn't saying that you're in the wrong here but rather..." he trailed off, desperately side-eyeing Chiba who sighed vehemently.

"That was reckless of you," Chiba finished for him as he sat down next to Miki.

Miki turned to him with a look of indifference. "And why is that?" She asked. "Is it because he's big, strong, and likely to physically hurt me because he's one of those stereotypical delinquents in this school? And that he has the freedom to do so now that we're in this class?"

Chiba just stared at her and despite not giving her any signs of response, Miki could clearly tell that what she said was exactly what he is thinking.

"He isn't the first and most definitely not gonna be the last bulky delinquent I'm ever going to encounter." Forming a stern frown, she hastily explained to them.

And with that, they dropped the issue.

"You're surprisingly talkative all of a sudden," Sugaya observed midway through a topic about their interests.

Closing the lid of her tumbler, Miki replied flatly, "That's because I actually have something to say. And I'm actually quite invested to where this conversation is going so far, so let's keep at it."

"That's another thing for me to be surprised about," Sugaya mused, "I never thought of you as an art enthusiast. It's uh..."

"I don't look like it?" Miki asked, which earned her a nod. "Dancing is a form of art," she stated as a matter of fact, "I dance."

The new piece of information must have been vital as it earned her a united 'oh' from both Sugaya and Chiba.

"That's... more likely," Sugaya commented, "What forms of dances do you do?"

Miki leaned back on her seat. "Quite a number, if I had to be honest."

"We still have ten minutes before lunch break ends," Chiba informed, clearly urging her to continue.

Sighing, a slight smirk formed around the blonde's lips. At the same time, she crossed her arms. "I taught myself to dance," she started, clearly proud at that fact, "from watching street performances my sister takes me to whenever I used to go home from school."

"Wait, you never took classes?" Sugaya suddenly interrupted.

"Not back then," she answered. "At first, I was completely interested with both hip hop and," a chuckle, "break-dancing that I really wanted to be able to do something like what I saw there. Luckily, my room is large enough for me to practice in. So I locked myself in there, mimicking some moves I saw, practising again and again until I just... got it. After that, I branched out."

Miki paused for a bit, recollecting her thoughts as she closed her boxed lunch. "I've done contemporary for a while then I went for popping and locking, also house, voguing, waacking, shuffling, and lyrical partner dances when I started middle school." She listed, counting everything with her fingers. "The only rather well-known forms of dances I've never done are classical ballet and jazz-funk. I would actually need to take classes on those but it's too pricey."

"What about... Capoeira, was it?" Sugaya asked.

Shifting in her seat, Miki shook her head. "Too much strength needed in the upper body to pull off. I'd rather not risk it."

Sugaya nodded his head in understanding. "That makes sense." Then he suddenly chuckled, "I'm kinda excited to see you dancing. From the way you explained how you learned, it kinda sounds like you're really good at it!"

"Don't get your hopes up," Miki fondly rolled her eyes, "But I might give you a show though, someday."

Sugaya grinned. "Can't wait, then."

Chiba, who was quietly listening to their conversation the whole time, suddenly noticed someone from the corner of his eye. "Miki-san..." He called out to the blonde.

"Hmm?"

"I think Yukimura-sensei is looking for you," he gestured to the slightly opened door, where the said teacher is trying to peek in.

Miki turned to where he pointed and found herself locking eyes with the teacher.

The moment Miki noticed her, Aguri almost immediately opened the door. "Ah, Yamazaki-san! May I have a word with you for a few moments?"

"Oh sure, sensei!" Miki instantly stood up from her seat. She quickly turned back to the boys apologetically. "Sorry, but can you move my table once lunch ends, please?"

"We got this, no sweat," Sugaya waved her off.

Chiba nodded at her. "Take your time."

Miki nodded back at them, "Thanks." She followed the teacher and left the classroom.

* * *

"I'm sorry for bothering you at this moment, Yamazaki-san. You seemed to be getting along with your classmates. I kind of felt bad for borrowing you for a moment," Aguri said when they entered the faculty room. "Have a seat," she gestured to the vacant seat next to hers.

Miki sat down with her as followed, "It's not a bother at all, sensei. I'm sure the others would understand," she reassured the teacher.

"Alright", Aguri pulled out a pen and a small notepad from her desk. "Unlike with the rest of your classmates, I haven't received your grades from your previous school year just yet. But I need to have a firm grasp of your abilities so that I can prepare my lessons better after this."

Miki nodded in understanding, immediately catching on with what the teacher was implying. "So, you wanted to know what subjects I excel at and what I need to improve on?"

"Exactly!" Beamed the teacher. "This wouldn't take long; maybe just a few minutes at least. If you don't mind, that is."

Miki shook her head. "Like I said, sensei, it's not a bother," she moved closer to the teacher. "Maths is arguably the subject I excel at the most, then English..."

She started listing all the subjects she is both good and bad at as well as her other previous academic performances with great detail. Aguri, on the other hand, furiously jolted everything down while listening intensively to her student.

"And that's about it, I think." Miki finished while skimming through the teacher's notes. "Anything else?"

Aguri shook her head in response. "This is more than enough, Yamazaki-san," she briefly scanned the information written down. "We can figure everything else out throughout the term."

"Should I then take my leave now, sensei?" Miki glanced at the wall clock to her right. _2 minutes..._ she noted.

"You can now," the teacher answered, not taking her eyes off the notepad.

Miki stood up and briefly bowed at the young teacher. As she made her way to the door, a voice stopped her from sliding it open.

"Um.. Yamazaki-san?"

She turned back to the teacher, "Yes, sensei?"

Aguri looked like she has something important to say to her, but she just shook her head. "Ah never mind. You can go now."

Unconvinced, Miki shortly stared at her teacher, observing her movements and gestures for any indications of what she was meant to say.

Then everything clicked.

"Yukimura-sensei," she cautiously called, not moving from where she was standing. "You heard?"

Aguri didn't give any signs of response but Miki immediately noticed at how her shoulders tensed and hands stiffened.

She allowed herself to smile in realization. "You must've been wondering why I defended you from Terasaka-kun earlier if I'm not wrong?"

At that, Aguri instantly whipped her head towards Miki, eyes widened and mouth opened in shock.

"You figured that it might cause some trouble if I ever sat next to Terasaka-kun, so you made me sit farther from him," Miki carefully continued. "That, alone, is enough for me to trust you and I am sincerely grateful for that."

She once again bowed respectfully to the teacher. "Thank you for having me, Yukimura-sensei." She turned towards the door and slid it open.

Even after Miki left the room, Aguri just only stared to where the student as standing earlier. After a few moments, the teacher finally let herself smile and soon returned to her work.

_Just maybe... I might be able to reach them this year..._

* * *

"Yes?"

Confused, Miki found herself staring at the (adorable) girl with short wavy ginger hair and peridot eyes who approached her when the final period ended.

A taller girl with brown hair in a high ponytail and violet eyes answered for the other girl's stead. "What Hinano-chan meant to say," she gestured to the shorter girl, "was that if we could walk with you home. You lived around Cyberia, right?"

"I do," after tidying her belongings, Miki slung her book bag onto her shoulder.

"We didn't get the chance to know you better during breaks and lunch since you were rather occupied," the brunette explained sheepishly. "So we figured that right now would be a good time. You're not busy, are you?"

Miki shook her head. "I'm free today."

Both girls sighed in relief at her answer. "I'm Yada Touka," the brunette introduced herself and gestured towards the ginger, "and her name is Kurahashi Hinano."

Kurahashi beamed brightly at her. "Nice to meet you!"

Still taken aback at the shorter girl's energy, Miki nodded in acknowledgement. "Likewise. The name's Yamazaki Jenny but just call me Miki instead."

The three left the classroom and Miki couldn't help but be inwardly ticked at the fact that both Sugaya and Chiba practically just ditched her when the two girls approached her.

"Why Miki though?" Kurahashi asked.

The taller girl just shrugged. "It's the name my father gave me and I use it more often."

"By the way, Miki-san," Yada turned to her. "Our other friends are actually waiting for us at the entrance," she informed, "I hope you don't mind the extra company."

"I don't mind at all," Miki reassured them.

Soon they reached the entrance hallway and found two girls, one with straight blonde hair and the other with wavy peach hair, waiting for them. The three girls broke free from their conversation as the blonde started calling and waving at them.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, Rinka-chan, Rio-chan!" Kurahashi called out to the other girls as they approached them.

The blonde just waved her off. "Don't mind~"

Yada just chuckled and turned to Miki. "Miki-san, I'd like you to meet Nakamura Rio-chan," she gestured to the blonde who grinned at her, "and Hayami Rinka-chan," the peach haired girl nodded at her in acknowledgement. Miki returned both gestures with her own.

"Nice to meet you. Yamazaki Jenny, at your service," grinning, Miki playfully bowed and scraped to them. "Just call me Miki," she looked up and winked at them.

The air around them went silent for a while until they all suddenly broke with laughter.

"Wow. Some humour you have there," Nakamura grinned widely at her, amused. "But I gotta admit," she walked closer to the taller girl and playfully nudged her, "You nearly got me falling for you, Miki-san. What a charmer!"

"Please," Miki rolled her eyes, but the smile on her face spoke otherwise. "That was just an appetizer, Nakamura-san. You haven't seen the most of it."

The blonde's grin stretched even further at that. "Really now..."

Then she suddenly dropped the topic once they started to walk down the mountain. "Anyways, we couldn't help but to eavesdrop with your conversation with Sugaya-kun earlier at lunch. You said you dance, right?"

Miki blinked at the sudden change of topic then hastily answered. "Well yeah..."

"We couldn't help but hear the whole thing," Yada reasoned apologetically, "You guys were just behind us and there wasn't much chatter in the classroom, anyways."

The taller girl just shook her head. "I don't mind."

"You also said you haven't taken any dance classes until recently, right?" Miki nodded at the follow-up question. Nakamura then pulled out her phone. "I thought you looked familiar so I went to do some old-fashioned soul searching," she then shoved her phone onto Miki's face but luckily the taller girl was far enough to be accidentally hit. "This is you, right?"

Miki looked at what the blonde was showing her and realized it was a dance class video that was uploaded on YuuTube. The small group of girls in the video were dancing in unison with a choreography she knew too well, she found herself wanting to move along.

But what caught her attention was the dancer in the centre and front of the dance formation, the girl with unruly blonde hair and crimson eyes who was dancing with great power, precision, and presence. The girl immediately stood out from the group with how young she is and how sharp her movements are. The girl's expression made her looked fierce and strong despite her age, but one could easily tell how much the girl enjoyed herself.

Miki didn't realized how much she's smiling from watching the girl in the video. "Wow, I looked so young back then," she mused, sighing in content at the memory.

Nakamura's blue eyes then widened in surprise and looked at the video once again. "So it is you..."

"That was three years ago after I graduated elementary," Miki informed them. "I just recently started to take dance classes around that time."

It was Hayami's turn to look surprised. "Just recently?" She suddenly spoke up, "I thought it had been a while. You were so good," she praised.

"Then that means you're J-MY, right?" Yada smiled at her.

Miki shook her head at how the brunette pronounced her former stage name. "It's pronounced as 'Jamie' but yeah, that's my stage name. They're from the initials of my name: **J**enny, **M**iki, and **Y**amazaki. I used that name when I take classes or when I sometimes join in the street dance performances I mentioned earlier." She explained shortly. "Anyways, I'm surprised that you even managed to discover me there. That was one of the few classes I took when I briefly stayed in the US during the summer."

"Rinka-chan and Touka-chan also dance!" Kurahashi answered, gesturing to the mentioned girls who quickly turned away out of embarrassment. "But Rio-chan is more interested in overseas dance classes when she's searching for choreography that they would sometimes practice with!"

"Oh really now?" Miki turned to the girls who were intentionally avoiding her gaze, especially Yada. She could even see the slight blush on Hayami's face. "I'm kinda attracted to the idea of dancing with you two now," she grinned to them. Then she focused on watching her steps, just in time to avoid an overgrown tree root from tripping her.

"Watch your steps, girls. This area is rather rooty," the other girls followed.

"But still," Yada continued, "the idea of dancing with you is too attractive," she laughed sheepishly. "Maybe once we got back into shape, we kind of regressed a lot because of last term finals," she nodded along with Hayami.

Miki nodded along with them. "Trust me, I did, too, regressed a bit," she shrugged her shoulders. "Which is why I was planning to hit the gym next week. My dancing style requires a lot of strength that I lost from the last exam season."

"You gotta be careful though," Nakamura nudged her with a wink, "you might end up becoming bigger than Terasaka, for all we know," she joked, which earned laughs from the others.

"I won't go that far!" Miki found herself laughing along with them.

* * *

"It took a while, but I have finally received your grades from your old class along with Yamazaki-san's report card from her old school," Aguri announced to her students the next Monday, her hands firmly holding a stack of long brown envelopes.

The class inwardly groaned at the announcement, knowing exactly that it was just another way for the teachers to damage the last remaining bit of their pride even further, by shoving their low grades right in front of their faces. It was as if the public execution they experienced last Friday wasn't enough to break them.

"My report card?" Miki frowned at that, confused as to why she is just now receiving her report card, when she couldn't even retrieve it last month. "I thought they wouldn't even bother to make me one," she muttered to herself as the teacher started to distribute the envelopes to each of the students.

"Miki", a hushed whisper made her turn towards Sugaya. "I thought you said your school never made you a report card?" She gave him a look that implied that she also doesn't have any idea of what was going on.

"Yukimura-sensei," she called out when the teacher gave her a stringed kraft envelope. When the teacher turned to her, she immediately asked, "You wouldn't mind if, at some point, I threw this on the ground out of pure anger once I saw everything inside, right?"

Aguri stared at her in surprise, then sweatdropped once she finally registered what the blonde had just said. "You wouldn't actually do that, would you?" She carefully asked.

Slightly wincing, Miki shook her head. "Sadly, I might. I apologize in advance, sensei."

After contemplating her answer, Aguri decided to let her be. "Alright, I'll allow you. But don't cause a scene, alright?" She warned, which instantly earned her a determined nod from her student.

Aguri gave her a last look before distributing the last few envelopes to the remaining students.

Miki returned the look with a more apologetic one while unravelling the string on her envelope. She carefully pulled out its content with slight dread, clearly not liking the situation at all. She studied the front cover of her report card where her ID picture is located at along with her basic information such as her name, birth date, and etc.

_So far so good. Everything looks normal... _She mentally noted, then frowned. _For now, at least..._ She shut her eyes closed when she opened the card, where her grades are supposed to be written down.

Miki knew that, from an outsider's perspective, she's being dramatic. But she couldn't care less about that right now, what she is currently holding in her hands was the report card that was seemingly hidden away from her for a whole month. That fact alone is enough to put her on edge.

_If they have to hide it from me, I assume. Then I won't like this, not even a little..._

Miki winked an eye open and, to her luck and relief, the first thing she saw was her Math grades during the mid-terms. Calming down, she then skimmed through her mid-term grades and was rather satisfied at how well she did around that time. There were no subjects that were lower than an A- and she was very proud that she got A on both Maths and English. She then read the teachers' remarks regarding her academic performances on the first-term and found herself biting down a smile with how much she was praised for her results.

_If my usual work ethic could get me such high results, I can surely place within the top 50 this term._ She reassured herself, suddenly feeling more motivated.

However, her short time of victorious happiness and self-assurance had come to an end when her eyes darted downwards to her End-of-term results.

Both her smile and mood dropped.

F's. F's on all her subjects.

_Huh?_ Miki blinked a few times to check if she was seeing things. The continuous F's remained there, written with a disheartening red pen.

A dangerous wave of fury and panic started rising inside her; her hands started trembling and her breathing became shallow. Her frantic eyes, as wide as they already are, furiously darted around the paper, searching for anything else other than the harsh continuous letters written down.

Nothing.

Sugaya, who had then recovered from his previous melancholy, turned to Miki to talk to her. However, the girl never once looked up from her report card. If anything else, she might have been purposely hiding in the paper. Had Sugaya not been observant enough, he could have just assumed that the girl was just trying to assess everything in silence.

Until he saw her trembling, a lot.

"Oi Miki!" He called out to her, hoping to at least distract her from what she was seeing. She didn't reply so he tried again but to no avail.

It was as if she couldn't hear him at all.

_Where? Where? Where is it? Where are they?!_ Drowned in her thoughts, Miki kept frantically searching on her report card. Her vision then became blurry the longer she searched. _Where were my written works? My class presentations? My extracurricular activities? My projects?! That damned group research project I ended up doing alone?!_

She choked back her tears.

_WHERE DID ALL THOSE GO?! WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM?!_

Then a realization suddenly interrupted her clouded thoughts.

"..Remarks... remarks..." She repeated muttered to herself while searching for the mentioned section. However, it did not calm her down one bit.

_There it is. _Miki barely had any time to notice that the handwriting was completely unfamiliar and unlike with any of her previous teachers as she immediately went to read what was written down.

**_This student has done remarkably with her academics this term, that is very much well-deserved for someone as talented and hardworking as she is. If the same amount of work ethic was also applied throughout the entire school year, she will, no doubt, earn the title of Valedictorian by the time of graduation._**

**_However, her academics would have been also been included on her final grade had she not missed the crucial-_**

Miki abruptly stood up abruptly that her chair loudly fell, which garnered the attention of the rest of her classmates. Aguri was about to warn her to not make a scene until she saw the girl trembling uncontrollably. With a wave of panic, she called out to her.

She didn't hear the teacher at all, too consumed by her uncontrolled emotions. With a piercing shriek, she harshly threw the paper to the other corner of the classroom, with every force she could muster.

Her actions immediately earned instantaneous reactions from the class. Many winced from how loud and piercing her shriek was, some immediately stood up in hopes to try to calm her down, while the others just stayed frozen in their seats, too shocked to even register what was going on.

"Yamazaki-san..?" Aguri cautiously approached the once trembling student, who now lifelessly stayed to where she was standing with her hands limped and her head hanged; her breathing became heavier.

"So that's how it's gonna be then, huh?" Literally everyone jumped in surprise when Miki suddenly spoke up, her voice both soft and even. She glared at the thrown paper, "Those endless sleepless nights, those insomnias, those migraine attacks, all that stress and hunger that built up, and my damned health deteriorating just so that I could at least do well and not worry anymore..!" Her voice gradually became louder the longer she talked.

Another wave of fury rose inside her and her jaw tightly clenched. Out of pure impulse, in a flash, Miki grabbed the envelope of her desk, crumpling it, and with the same amount of force, she harshly threw the crumpled paper to where her report card was.

"SO YOU'RE ALL GONNA JUST IGNORE ALL OF THAT BECAUSE I DIDN'T TAKE MY FUCKING FINALS?!"

Suddenly, a pair of arms wrapped around her torso tightly, keeping her from making any further signs of movement. Miki's first reaction was to break free from the hands, but her body seems to be more exhausted than she expected it to be and so, the arms didn't budge at all, even wrapping around her more tightly.

It took a while before Miki even realized that it was Aguri who was trying to make her move as little as possible with a tight hug, who obviously had the intention of calming her down firstly.

The classroom became eerily quiet, with no students willing to make any sound as much as possible. Only Miki's harsh breathing can be heard.

Aguri didn't move from her position, but one of her hands started to caress the taller girl's head in hopes of calming her down, her other hand now wrapped tightly around Miki's waist to keep her from moving. She repeated the process for a while until Miki's breathing began to even out with her shoulders relaxing.

She could only hope that Miki wouldn't dwell on it any longer and just move on.

* * *

"And that's what happened last week," Miki finished as she idly lingered around her study table, laptop opened for her to continue to work on.

On her phone, was a video call with a guy her age with curly ginger hair and amber eyes. "You actually broke down in the middle of class," he stated, still not able to process the story he just heard.

Miki rolled her eyes at his disbelief. "For your information, Park Jungyoon-san. They completely disregarded my school works and just graded me from the final exams," she gave him a pointed look. "If you were in my position at that time, considering how stressed you are right now, with how poorly we usually handle our sudden burst of emotions, you're also likely to break down."

"Fair point," Jungyoon shrugged in response. "But unlike you, I might actually get in trouble for it. So, no thanks, sweetie."

Miki frowned, "Well that sucks," she turned to her laptop and continued her previous work.

"Tell me about it," the ginger sighed vehemently. "Also, are you sure you're actually fine helping me with my thesis?" He asked, concerned. "You just had an emotional and mental breakdown not too long ago. I don't think you should be stressing yourself on this project."

"It's due tomorrow, Yoon-ah," she deadpanned. "Also, we're almost done, actually. All we need is to re-evaluate the recommendations and grammar check."

"I can do that myself, Jinhee," he argued, a disapproving look on his face. "You're still emotionally drained, I can tell. You need to rest."

"You're the one who needs resting," she shot back not taking her eyes off her work. "It's project season for you stressed-out fellows while I'm just chillin' here, getting very restless at how unproductive my week has been."

Jungyoon didn't reply, but a frown is still visible on his face.

"You're handling the grammar checks," then she sighed, turning to face him. "Look, I get why you're worried. But I'm all better now, my classmates has also been a great help," she gestured to her other phone, which kept ringing from the messages her classmates has been sending her through their group chat on LYNE.

Miki smiled to him reassuringly. "One last time, let me help."

Jungyoon briefly stared at her before sighing in defeat, knowing that it's impossible to change her mind at this point. With that thought in mind, he let himself to smile back at her, more gently. Then he opened his mouth to give his response.

But before the words leave his mouth, a sudden very bright light clouded both of their visions.

Miki winced loudly as she frantically covered her stinging eyes with her hands tightly. The intense brightness of the light was enough to warm her skin to an uncomfortable degree like it was the sun that was glaring down at her.

Once she was sure that the glare died down, Miki immediately rushed towards the window, hoping to at least figure out what caused the burning light. For all she knew, it could be a crashed plane or even a failed satellite that caused it.

But what met her eyes was far worse than what she could have imagined.

Up there, in the low sky, where the moon should have been full and brightly lit, is a burning crescent.

A scream ripped itself from her throat and her body started to shake again, really badly. It took the most of her willpower for not her legs to give up.

Then a more important thought pierced through her panicked mind. _Jungyoon!_ Miki's eyes widened at that, remembering that she was still in the middle of a conversation with the boy when the explosion happened.

Still visibly shaken, she scrambled towards her phone and immediately grabbed it with both hands. "Jungyoon, you there?! JUNGYOON!"

There was no response at the other line, then the call ended. Too exhausted to even move from her position, Miki just blankly stared at her phone screen.

**_Network Unavailable..._**

* * *

**A/N: **

**This was originally meant to be a wholesome chapter with some cute interactions inside the class and more relationship building for Miki. But because the emotional progression of this chapter was a lot less clear unlike the first chapter, that entire scene with Miki's sudden emotional breakdown was unplanned and completely improvised.**

**So, with that in mind, I'm planning to edit this once I have the next access to a laptop.**

,

**Thank you for reading and please review if you ever had the time! :) **

**~松原 3 **


	3. Spring Time

**Disclaimer: Anything you recognize belongs to their respective owners.**

* * *

**A/N: I'd like to inform you that this is a side character and OC-centric story. So please don't be confused if your favourite main characters won't be appearing much.**

**And also very slow updates.**

* * *

**TARGET ON!**

**"Spring Time"**

_"...Unfortu__nately, there have not been any further reports nor findings regarding the disintegration of the moon..."_

Clad in a white shirt and baggy ripped jeans combination, Miki stood still a good distance away from the flat-screen TV in the family room, an unreadable expression on her face as she digested the already known information in her head once again.

After recovering from the initial shock she experienced last night, Miki repeatedly tried calling Jungyoon in hopes of knowing if he was at least safe, even going as far as dialling his family home number. It was only after the fifth attempt when she had come to the conclusion that the phone lines must have been jammed that night, knowing that the incident had caused a worldwide panic.

They both were still working on his thesis when the painfully bright light came, so Miki knew that Jungyoon must be also in his bedroom at that time. It is very likely that he could be safe and unharmed and was just shocked and exhausted from the recent event like she is. But still, Miki couldn't help but keep worrying, not just for Jungyoon's safety but also for her classmates'.

Apparently, everyone who was outside that night got blinded by the light, so a lot of drivers accidentally sped up and swerved off the road, or into each other. Vehicles piled up at every intersection and a concerning amount crashed onto stores, buildings, and even houses. Many people were injured in that instance, not only the ones that are inhabiting the cars but also many random passersby, even the ones who were deemed safe in their dwelling. In just a short time, the entire world was in a panic.

Which is why, after this, she is planning to go around Kunugigaoka to check on some of her classmates. Miki only hoped that none of them got caught in the crossfire and at least unharmed.

"The phone lines came back about an hour ago but they're still rather weak, just to let you know," her father, who sat frozen on the couch with her mother, informed rather robotically.

The grip on her phone tightened at that. "Well, that's reassuring.." Miki sighed, pocketing her phone. _And fast..._

"Also," there was a slight hesitation in her father's voice, Miki noticed, "About your report card..."

"So you finally decided to take a look at it after a whole week has passed, congrats," Miki dryly stated as she wore the red flannel shirt that was originally hanging on her right arm. "You already knew whose fault it was in the first place so there's no need for us to discuss this matter any further," she finished, her voice still even.

Her father didn't reply after that, suddenly finding the news broadcast more interesting.

Inwardly rolling her eyes at his sudden retreat, Miki turned to her mother instead. "Ma, I'm going out for a bit. I'll probably be back around afternoon."

"Hmm?" Her mother tore her eyes off the TV and turned to her daughter, "It's still rather early, Miki. Where are you heading to?"

"Since I can't reach any of them just yet, I'm checking on my classmates to see if they're fine," Miki readjusted her backpack a little before leaving the family room, but not without hearing her mother's warning. "The main roads are still unsafe! Be careful!"

"I will!" She strutted through the hallways until she reached the entrance hall, where she changed into her white sneakers. As her hand reached for the door handle, Miki turned back to where her parents are located at and announced for the last time.

"I'm off!"

* * *

In the midst of panicking and being shaken from the moon incident, there many things that haven't fully registered onto Miki's mind when she woke up that morning. One of which was that she hadn't eaten her breakfast yet, since she woke up rather late than usual that she hadn't had the time to make anything for herself and her parents.

The idea of morning hunger only came to her when her stomach began rumbling after boarding the train that was designated to the other side of the town. But luckily, it was spring break and that most working schedules were cancelled so the train Miki was in wasn't even the least crowded. So the only thing she needed to worry about on the way was her empty stomach, which was beginning to drain her as the minutes goes by.

And another obvious thing that hasn't registered to her mind until she reached the second station, was that she had no idea where any of her classmates lived.

Miki silently groaned for the fifth time as she blankly stared at the mug of coffee next to her finished breakfast. The moment she left the train station, she immediately rushed to the nearest cafe she could find as she couldn't bear her hunger any longer.

"Why am I so stupid today?" Sighing again, she took a long hedonistic sip of her coffee as her mind started to wander off again.

_All classes worldwide have been cancelled today, _she remembered vividly, _so it's likely that the deadline for Jungyoon's thesis will be moved... _Suddenly, her eyes narrowed. _That guy better not ditch my efforts and do it himself._

Another common trait she, unfortunately, shares with the Korean was that while they hated it when their efforts are being ignored, they'd also rather do things by themselves and ironically refuses any help from others unless forced. While Miki had become more aware after the entire matter regarding her report card, she can't be sure if the same could be said for Jungyoon as the guy had grown more restless when the supposed deadline for the project approaches. No matter how many times he tried to reassure her that he's doing fine, Miki couldn't help but notice how tired he looked and how pale he recently had gotten.

_Ugh... I just hope that guy is at least eating well..._ She placed down her coffee and reached for the chiffon cake she recently ordered. With a rather condemned smile, she took a bite of the cake. _It's so ironic at how our roles have switched in just six months... _She sighed delightfully after savouring the fluffy texture of the chiffon cake. _But hopefully, he'll handle it much better than I did..._

"Oh! I thought I recognized that shade of blonde!" A painfully familiar voice called out her. Miki woke up from her reverie when footsteps began approaching her table.

As if some kind of force was pulling her, Miki suddenly whisked her head towards the direction of where the voice came from and nearly dropped her fork when she saw a familiar woman waving happily at her; a familiar mischievous glint always present in her jade green eyes. The auburn-haired young woman clearly looked much older than the last time Miki had personally seen her, which made her come to a realization that a few years has already passed.

Miki sat frozen on her seat as she watched the woman taking the vacant seat at the other side of the table, whose grin never left her face. "Kitsune..." She barely let out an audible whisper.

"Long time no see, little sis!" The woman named Kitsune greeted back with her grin widening. "What brings you here on the other side of the town?"

"I'm planning to check on some of my classmates," she answered almost automatically. Blinking owlishly, Miki quickly regained her composure and straightened her posture. "What about you?" She raised an eyebrow. "What are you doing here, in Kunugigaoka? Don't you have work today? It's Thursday, after all."

Kitsune just shrugged nonchalantly. "Classes are cancelled this week, so is work, unfortunately," she sighed before shooting her sister a pointed look. "And I live here, excuse you."

"Not in this area," Miki shot back dryly, placing down her fork in exchange for her coffee. "Seriously, I thought you'd rather be more lowkey with your whereabouts and all. What if _they_ find you?"

Her sister scoffed in response. "As if that old man would care enough to look for me," she spat out, "You think he would?"

"Ever since you left, he never mentioned you, not even once..." Miki paused and intentionally drank her coffee to buy herself more time to ponder over her answer. "So, no. I don't think he would," she let out a small chuckle, "I don't think he's even aware that you're in Japan this whole time."

Kitsune rolled her eyes with a smirk, followed by a small huff of breath. "Or the name change," the woman added slyly.

"Right, right," Miki put down her coffee once again. "What about Mom, though? Have you kept in touch with her, you know, _in secret_?" She whispered the last bit.

"Of course I did. She didn't even do anything wrong in the first place," Kitsune's smirk then widened. "Actually, we met up last month," she informed.

What met her answer was pure silence; no any sort of reaction from her younger sister even after a few seconds. Miki just stared at her, an incredulous and a rather betrayed look slowly contorting onto her face as she digested the new information.

After pondering over the new piece of information, Miki blinked a few times, then narrowed her eyes at her sister almost accusingly. "What do you mean by 'you met up with her'?"

"Just like I said," Kitsune leaned back with her arms crossed, her wide smirk fading into a small yet gentle smile, "We met up."

Disregarding the mild chatters resonating inside the cafe, the air around them became silent once again.

Swallowing, Miki apprehensively locked eyes with her sister when the latter refused to elaborate, not knowing what to say nor what to do. She knew very well that there is more to this matter than she could have ever imagined. With both her parents' nonchalance and Kitsune's vagueness, while they weren't really hiding anything from her, there was only so much information to decipher for her to conclude that the details should remain unspoken.

For five straight years, without any questions, Miki understood that very well.

Even until to this day.

"I see..." She responded rather quietly, orbs of crimson tearing away from jade. With a soft sigh, she quickly straightened her posture, arms folded neatly on the table; she gave her sister a polite smile. "Good for you, nee-chan."

The smile on Kitsune's face instantly dropped. "Miki..."

"I'm assuming that you have other matters to attend, correct?" Cutting her off, Miki didn't move from her position, voice even still. "Then I must be taking your time more than I should have."

Kitsune faltered at that, her expression growing heavier the longer she continued to stare at her sister. Miki, on the other hand, barely reacted; the polite smile stayed on her face.

"Alright..." Kitsune sighed in defeat, running her hands through her hair. "In the first place, I'm not planning to stay here any longer. I only went in to say hi." She stood up from her seat.

Miki nodded quietly and lightly bowed to her. "I'm sorry if I ended our reunion too shortly," then she felt a hand on her head, lightly ruffling her hair.

"No worries!" Kitsune laughed softly, retreating her hand. "I completely understand. Just don't get in trouble," then she started walking away.

"Take care..." Miki trailed off, her eyes longingly following her sister's retreating figure as her posture began to relax. The latter raised her right arm, waving at her words in acknowledgement.

_I won't ever question it, nee-chan..._ She stayed in her seat; her eyes helplessly lingered to where she last saw her sister standing at. _I completely understand..._

"Miki... san?"

* * *

"What brings you here, Chiba-kun?" Miki asked once they exited the cafe. The very first thing she noticed about Chiba when she saw him was how well he was dressed; a lime green collared jacket over a white shirt that broadened his shoulders a bit, black pants and white sneakers that emphasized his long legs, and a grey beanie to finish off the look. Not just his clothing, but the way he stood up straight with his arms tucked in his pockets made his height even more prominent.

_He stands and dresses very well... _Miki gave him a once over and mentally nodded in approval. _He doesn't even look the least awkward._

Chiba scratched the back of his head rather awkwardly, his gaze anywhere but her. "All the shops and stores nearby have closed. Also, a car had crashed on Cyberia, unfortunately," he carefully explained when they began walking away.

Miki nodded in understanding. "Ahh, you also lived around there, I assume?" She prodded further, which earned her a silent nod. "Same neighbourhood?"

Chiba hummed in deep thought, hesitating before he spoke again. "I can't say."

"Hmm... you must have gone here since it's quicker by train, right?" After contemplating his answer, she followed up another question.

He nodded this time and briefly added. "All the buses are unavailable at this time." They stopped before the pedestrian line once the light was red, even though no vehicles were driving past them.

"I see..."

While waiting for the stoplight to turn green, Miki discreetly examined his tall figure, taking note of the minor details she once had missed: like how his hair was more greenish than just pure black, how unbelievably clear his skin is (she needs to know his skincare routine if he had one), how she was now sure that they're the same height, and how sharp his jawline was like wow-!

Miki quickly tore her eyes from him, growing more conscious with how much she was staring. She could only hope that she didn't freak him out.

Anyways, Chiba was one of the only two people in her small circle of friends whom she hadn't talked to much, the other being Hayami. But unlike Hayami, whom she was beginning to form a bond with from their similar interests, there was almost nothing she knew about Chiba, save for the small gist of his personality.

He was always at the back of their conversations, preferring to only listen instead of contributing to one of their many topics. Even when asked, his answers are usually short and very objective, which makes it extra difficult for Miki to deduce on what his best interests are.

She assumed that he's the type that needs time to gather his thoughts before speaking, so she kind of hoped that he would be more elaborated through his messages. But unfortunately, Chiba was even worse in their group chats, using stickers as responses and, out of rarity, types out one-word answers whenever they asked him any questions.

And that was the group chat she shared with the boys, not the group chat for the entire class. Never once, from her daily monitoring, had she ever saw him send anything in their main group chat. Miki couldn't be the one to judge though, with the number of times she had muted her old class' group chat just for the sake of being able to focus on her work, but she usually just kept her messages short yet meaningful and doesn't go as far as with replying only a word or a sticker.

Miki wondered how busy Chiba must have been in his home, despite the rather unproductive week they've received after landing in Class E if he wouldn't even bother to write a message that is longer than a single word.

Or he could be just ignoring them just because. He gives off that energy after all.

"What about you, Miki-san?" She heard him asking, which immediately snapped her from her own thoughts. "What brings you here at this hour, if you don't mind me asking?" He elaborated further when she finally looked at him.

Another thing Miki had noticed was that, in contrary to how naturally deep and heavy his voice was, Chiba was a lot more soft-spoken and well-mannered than he appeared to be. While Miki already expected that kind of demeanour from Chiba, with the amount of time they spent together in the same group even without much talking, it was a bit disconcerting to see the difference between his quiet but gentle personality and his strong but mysterious appearance.

If Miki didn't know any better, she would've just assumed that Chiba was one of those lone wolf types who would rather watch instead of getting involved; doesn't bite but still dangerous.

"I don't," she firstly reassured him. "I woke up late that I couldn't make breakfast anymore, so I came here to at least eat something," she found herself smiling rather sheepishly when she revealed that, "and also, to check up on some of our classmates."

Chiba lightly tilted his head at her second answer. "Can I ask why?"

"When I heard the news about simultaneous car accidents, I got worried." Miki started slowly, crossing the highway with him the moment the light turned green. "But it was when I entered that cafe that I realized that," she turned her face away from him, the former sheepish smile becoming more deadpanned, "I don't even know where I could find them."

However, instead of poking fun over her mistake, Chiba raised an eyebrow with slight disbelief. "You never passed through any of their houses?"

"Not even once," Miki shook her head vehemently. "I'm usually the first one to arrive home when I walk with the girls. So I assumed that they must have lived farther than I do."

Chiba hummed in thought. "Is that all?"

"For today's plans?" She elaborated, which earned her another nod. "Yeah, I think that's all. But I've told my mother that I would be back this afternoon, so.." She trailed off, beginning to run out of words to make herself continue.

They both walked in nearly pensive silence, only the sound of their footsteps, as well as the distant volume of the news broadcasts, can be heard. For a short while, neither of them spoke, and yet the atmosphere wasn't awkward nor unpleasant but rather soothing and comfortable. There was something satisfying Miki found about the way their heels hit the pavement in unison, never missing a beat. They could even go on with this until the end of the day and she wouldn't even mind it at all.

Then from the corner of her eye, she immediately noticed how Chiba started to fidget, even as little as he could. From the way he bit his lip, Miki could only assume that there was something he wanted to tell her but is still trying to figure out to do so.

He let out a small breath.

"If it's not too much trouble," he stole short glances towards her, the awkwardness in his voice growing more obvious with each word. "I'm planning to meet up with Sugaya after lunch. Would you like to join?"

Miki's eyebrows furrowed in confusion, certainly not expecting an invitation from him, of all people. She turned to him when they began to slow down their steps. "Had I did, would I be a bother?"

"Not at all." Chiba gently shook his head with a small smile. "There wasn't much to do today, anyways. Also, he seems more... 'aware' to where some of our classmates might be. If you're still planning to check up on them, that is." He quickly added after.

Miki looked at him almost curiously, staring for a few moments. While it's true that, despite the panic caused by the moon incident, it had been a very slow morning. The street they're currently walking at is nearly deserted, and almost completely silent if it weren't for the distant news broadcasts. Plus, there is no way she'd encounter any of her other classmates at this point if she continued the solo hunt. Meeting Chiba in that cafe was just a very rare occurrence, and likely won't happen again anytime soon. _But since there are no ways of contacting Sugaya, I'm practically crashing their meet-up... _She mentally sighed. _I guess it wouldn't be much of a problem since I was invited to join..._

With that in mind, Miki let herself to return the smile. "I'd very much like that, Chiba-kun. Thank you..."

"It's nothing," Chiba simply waved her off calmly.

Miki then pulled out her phone from her pocket and quickly the time. "Anyways, we still have two hours left before lunch," she informed. "Do you have any other plans? I'm probably taking too much of your time."

The calm expression on Chiba's face was immediately shattered. "No, it's okay! I liked having you around!"

"You do?" Miki blinked at him, almost unsure.

Almost immediately, Chiba back-pedalled. "Ah... no! W-what I meant to say was that uh..." Then he briskly turned his head away from her, seemingly having difficulties with formulating his words properly.

Though it made her feel like a first-rate jerk, Miki couldn't help but to inwardly chuckled at how easily flustered Chiba had gotten because of his poor choice of wording. She couldn't blame the guy though. The meaning of his words could easily be mistaken as something else, and with the presumably fragile state of their friendship, the last thing they wanted is a misunderstanding.

Still amused by the situation, Miki softly called out to him. "Chiba, breathe..."

As if the words were magic, Chiba slowly turned back to her, his cheeks still lightly dusted with bits of red. Seeing the reassuring smile on the blonde face must've calmed his nerves down since his shoulders began to relax again.

"What I meant to say was that," he continued after clearing his throat. "I don't mind the company, Miki-san. You can come with me if you'd like to."

Miki smiled further at that, slowing her steps down before gazing at the nearly empty road. "Alright," then she faced him again. "You can drop the honorifics, Chiba-kun.," she told him simply.

They both stopped their tracks and Chiba just stared blankly at her, somewhat taken aback by the sudden suggestion. "Should I?" He asked sceptically.

"We're friends, aren't we?" Miki elaborated with her tone even.

Chiba immediately broke eye contact and placed his hand around his nape. "Yeah... I guess we are..."

He frowned, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jacket. "You can also just call me Chiba," he added rather quietly before he continued walking.

Amused, Miki lightly snorted at his actions and quickened her steps to catch up with him. "Where are we first headed to?" She asked simply, looking around the street for any signs of opened stores.

"I think the record shop nearby is opened..." Chiba replied, gaze transfixed on the road before them. Then he shortly glanced at her, "Is that okay, Miki?"

"GLOW's new album must've gotten delayed at this point..." Miki muttered, obviously disappointed. She returned his gaze and nodded at him. "Yeah, I'll go."

Chiba returned the nod and pointed towards the east direction. "The shop's just over there," he informed. "It won't take long."

Miki hummed in response, letting her mind wander off again as she quietly followed Chiba's lead.

She was somehow taken aback that, in just a few seconds, she had learned something vital about Chiba, specifically his interests. The moment he mentioned about going to a record shop, Miki had instantly come into the conclusion that the guy must be really interested in music if that was the first place he was planning to go. Since music is also something Miki enjoyed, she felt like there is finally something she and Chiba could talk about without any objectivity in the topic. She hoped that their journey at the record shop would allow her to discover what genre Chiba specifically listens to and what artists he follows, and she also hoped that some of their interests are similar.

And she's going to make that happen; the first half, that is.

When the designated shop has come into view, Miki took the opportunity to shift a bit closer to him. "Say, Chiba..." she started.

"Yeah?" He asked, turning his head slightly to her.

"I'm actually trying to expand my music range," she calmly admitted, her eyes still on the road. "Would you like to recommend me something? I'm open to any genre."

Chiba's mouth slightly dropped, staring at her before a mellow smile worked on his face; rather different from his usual polite ones. "If it's any genre, you said..." He trailed off. Miki then turned to him curiously and to her utter surprise, his smile slowly contorted into a full, somewhat roguish, grin.

"I do have some albums in mind for you to try."

* * *

It was early in the morning when Miki awoke, just as half-light was slowly seeping into her bedroom. Slowly opening her eyes, she blinked away her sleepiness and gently brushed a lock of hair out of her eyes. The crisp warm bed sheets wrapped around her, albeit a bit too tightly after a long night of rolling around, tempted her to fall back asleep for a little while longer.

Yesterday's events utterly exhausted her

Who would have thought that the idea of Chiba introducing new music to her would mentally drain her so much, especially the fact that the usually stoic guy was shockingly enthusiastic during the whole ride? It was like Miki was with a completely different person and if she couldn't see him physically, she would have never recognized him at all.

There was so much she learned about Chiba yesterday, from just their visit at the record shop alone, that her head was mildly aching throughout the day from receiving too much information.

The first thing she learned about him was that he particularly likes hardcore punk, which is one of the many genres she grew up listening to in the 2000s. He introduced her to many bands and artists, in which most clearly got her attention and might actually explore later, and casually just revealed that he was formerly a member of one of the bands, a rock band at that, in their school's light music club. As if the information he gave her wasn't that important, he proceeded to elaborate on what he used to do in his former club.

After leaving the record shop, their next destination was the music store opened in front, which where he showed her what instruments he played and what position he took in the band.

Chiba was an all-rounder, Miki concluded, with the way he demonstrated his ability to play any instrument normally used in a rock band in relative ease. But she clearly made up her mind about his band position when he showcased his outstanding skills in playing the guitar, whether electric or acoustic, with a level of expertise that is definitely far from being an amateur, as much as she could tell.

Then he dropped the bomb when he, again, casually mentioned to her that he only started playing around the final year of his elementary, which lingered onto her mind throughout the rest of the day, along with some of the songs he introduced to her earlier.

Her mind was in a complete daze that she could barely remember what happened when they finally met up with Sugaya after lunch. Miki vaguely recalled meeting him around the same district but she couldn't remember anything else from that day. Heck, she wasn't even sure if she actually met up with any of her classmates as she promised herself to.

Sighing, she shook off the lingering thought, not wanting to stress herself even by just a little. She'll worry about it sometime later.

Her eyes were blankly staring at the ceiling before her when one of her phones began ringing underneath her pillow. Grunting, Miki wiggled one of her arms off the tight wrap and blindly searched for that particular phone.

_Someone's calling..._ she noted, grabbing her phone the moment her fingers laced onto it. _The phone lines are back to normal..._ Not bothering to check the caller ID, she swiped the screen to answer.

"Hello...?" She managed to croak out, still in the process of waking herself up as she struggled to keep her phone steady to her left ear with one hand.

_"Happy Birthday to you~ Happy Birthday to you~"_

Miki let out a very wistful smile on her face as a familiar voice gently sang out. With all the recent events happening one by one, she had nearly forgotten that today, the 14th of March, was indeed her birthday.

_"Happy Birthday, Park Jinhee~ Happy Birthday to you~"_

"Wow, Park Jinhee already," she mused, the smile never leaving her face. "Are we even gonna get married in the next ten years?"

"The love is strong!" Jungyoon loudly claimed, chuckling at the other line. "Let your boyfriend dream, at least!"

"Right, right..." Miki wiggled the rest of her body off the bedsheets and sat up. "What time is it?" She asked, tiredly ran her hands through her loose waves.

There was a pause at the other line, assuming that Jungyoon quickly checked the time. "It's only 6:30, rather early I think," he replied.

"And you woke me up," Miki sighed as she gazed the windows. "I think the sun's beginning to rise," she informed. She then crawled towards the spiral stairs attached to her loft bed and stepped down.

"It's still dark here," Jungyoon informed also, "I think."

"Naturally, it would be..." Miki muttered as she approached the windows and opened the curtains. Almost immediately, the once darkness of her room was immersed in the gentle bluish glow of the dawn. Her eyes then gazed around her room, marvelling at the softness of the light that had illuminated it.

"Anyways," Jungyoon interrupted from the other line, "I called in just to sing for you. Couldn't think of anything else to say, mind is still asleep," then he yawned.

Miki chuckled at that. "Thank you either way," another smile worked its way on her face. "Now get some sleep, you muscle-baby."

"Don't call me that~!"

He childishly wined in reply, which caused her to chuckle a bit louder. "To me, you still are," though Miki couldn't see him, she knew that he is already pouting at her.

"Well then, sleep well. I love you~" She walked towards her bed and sat on the stairs.

The other line as silence for a few moments before a softer voice rang out. "I love you too..."

Before the call ended, Miki immediately recalled something from yesterday's events. "Oh, by the way!"

"Hmm?"

"I met a really hot guy yesterday!" Miki grinned slyly. "Want me to introduce him to you? He seems to be your type~"

There was loud coughing at the other line, which caused her to laugh louder since the question really threw him off. "W-what? Huh?!" Flustered, Jungyoon sputtered out.

"Interested? You seem to be," Miki's grin widened even further.

"A-am absolutely not! You're out of your mind!" He barked out. "I'm hanging up!"

With that sudden announcement, the phone call ended.

_So cute..._ Still grinning, Miki pocketed her phone and climbed up the stairs to retrieve her other phone, which has just now begun ringing from messages. As soon as she grabbed it, she sat down at the stairs once again, swiping her lock screen open to check all the missed messages.

Miki opened her LYNE app and checked all the messages she just now received. Most of them came from their main group chat, in which most are about asking each classmate if the others are fine. But seeing that everyone was asking and that no one seems to reply to each other, Miki assumed that the messages from that night were just now being sent. To her relief, she saw that everyone was asking the same question, meaning they were all unharmed and are asking about the others' safety.

Then a new message popped up, and to Miki's surprise, it was from the group chat she shared with the boys.

**Mimura:** Good morning, Miki-san!

Mimura was a boy, with mushroom-style ginger hair and is of average height, who recently joined their small circle through Sugaya, who he became friends with because of their similar interests. As a dancer, Miki more or less found herself immersed in their discussions, especially with particular topics such as filming and stage directing. Although it has barely been a week yet, Miki hoped that she could get along with their new companion even further, since she heavily felt like she could learn a lot from him.

_He must've noticed that I'm already active..._ She mused, clicking on the notification that led her to their personal group chat. _He's early..._

**Miki: **Good morning too, Mimura. You're up early.

**Mimura:** I slept the entire afternoon since I stayed up late editing.

_It could be about something else..._ Miki sent out a shock-faced sticker. _But I think he must've filmed the accidents caused by the moon..._

**Mimura:** What about you?

**Miki: **Nothing much. I normally wake up around this time.

**Mimura:** Ohh! An early bird, I see.

Miki stood up from the stairs and walked towards her unconventionally long study table(s), which was (were?) behind the tall bookshelf that was connected to her loft bed. She pulled out the office chair and comfortably sat on it, even letting herself spin playfully.

**Miki:** Apparently, catching up with requirements got me used to it.

**Mimura: **I hate those...

Miki chuckled loudly at his reply, finding herself relating with him. Then two new accounts became active and joined them.

**Okajima: **Deadlines? Never heard of 'em lol

**Sugaya: **Good morning!

**Okajima: **Oho what's this? Mimura are you already making a move on our resident woman of culture? ;)

In an instant, Miki's mouth hanged open in exasperation as she sensed that the resident pervert would assume something like that. Sighing, she quickly typed out her reply before any other member could do so, not forgetting to tag him specifically.

**Miki: **_Okajima Taiga_ And who are you to say something like that?

**Okajima:** Ah Miki! Good morning!

_Of course, he'd ignore my remark..._She sweat-dropped.

**Miki: **Did we woke you two up?

**Okajima: **Nah it's our class group chat that woke me up!

**Sugaya: **My phone just started ringing I literally jumped.

Then the last member of their group chat, Chiba aka their resident mute, went active and messaged them with shockingly **_two words_**.

**Chiba: **Good morning.

**Okajima: **Woah did you just typed more than a word?!

**Mimura: **Wow that's a first!

**Sugaya: **Miki, what did you do to him yesterday?

**Chiba: **Ah, Miki.

**Chiba: **Happy Birthday.

He sent out a cake sticker with confetti around it and balloons that spelt out the greeting 'Happy Birthday'.

**Miki:** Thank you.

After that, the group chat became noisy, with Okajima demanding answers from Chiba as to why he had knowledge of when her birthday was while they don't. Mimura and Sugaya both greeted her after, to which she gratefully thanked them for. It was only after around 5 minutes when Okajima finally remembered to greet her, albeit a little bit too excitedly.

Miki just laughed out her exasperation, feeling completely awake from just interacting with the boys. She even felt like a single ridiculous message from Okajima is enough to wake her up.

Then a new notification popped up, which was a message from Nakamura.

Immediately, she clicked on the notification and it brought her to the group chat she shared with Nakamura, Kurahashi, Yada, and Hayami. The other blonde had sent her something along with a picture, tagging her also.

**RIO: **_Yamazaki Jenny_ HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY LOVE LOVES!

Then the picture Nakamura sent was a selfie of her winking at the camera flirtatiously and her lips are pucked as if she was about to kiss someone.

Miki wheezed out an ugly laugh while saving the photo onto her gallery.

**J-MY:** Beautiful

She quickly sent a selfie of her returning the kiss, with her free hand on her cheek and her head tilted.

**J-MY:** Thank you, my dear~

**RIO: **Looking schmexy ;)

Miki bit down a laugh.

**RIO: **Anyways, wanna go shopping later with the girls?

**RIO: **You probably can't pull a party at this point so let's make your day better!

**RIO: **Whaddya think about it?

A warm smile worked its way onto Miki's face.

**J-MY:** Yeah sure. Let's do it :)

**RIO:** That's great! Let's meet up at the station near our school. I'll let the other girls know when they wake up!

* * *

"What's this?"

Miki blankly stared at the small envelope being handed to her by her father, whose deep russet eyes never leaving hers.

After chatting with Nakamura for a bit, she quickly took a warm shower and put herself into the simplest combination of clothes she could find- a caramel coloured baggy t-shirt which she tucked under a denim jumpsuit overalls and a black bucket hat. A white tote bag hung on her shoulder and she decided to keep her hair loose for the day.

Her father sighed, scratching the back of his head vehemently. "It's all the monthly allowances you haven't been getting since December, along with this month's," he answered shortly.

Miki cautiously took the envelope, rather perplexed. "Thanks, I guess..." She muttered as she slowly opened the envelope and took a peek inside it.

Her eyes popped open when she first saw the ten thousand yen. Her guard sprung up as she carefully counted the number of papers that are in the envelope. _What the-?!_

"Dad, this is a lot!" Miki exclaimed, waving the money in front of her father's face.

Her father barely reacted. "It's called saving," he corrected.

Miki looked at the wad of cash once again, still unsure. "But this... this is a hundred thousand yen! You're basically spoiling me at this point!"

"Your monthly allowance is approximately 25,000 yen," he started, "All of that is worth four months of your allowances, it's nothing different."

"But-!"

Her father interrupted her quickly. "You said you're going shopping with your friends, right?" Miki nodded at that. "Then go have fun!" Then he lightly patted her shoulder, "It's been a rough month for you lately, Miki. You deserve this..."

Their eyes met briefly again, in which Miki immediately noticed the hint of guilt on her father's, a blatant reminder that her harshness towards him yesterday hadn't been forgotten.

"Alright..." Miki replied softly after a moment of hesitation, pulling out her wallet from her bag to store the wad of cash in.

Her father hesitantly let go of her shoulder and he looked unreasonably solemn, it was like as if he was stuck between bidding her farewell or just retreating without saying a word.

The silence was painfully awkward, as obvious as it is. While her grip on her wallet tightened, Miki slightly grimaced towards herself and began feeling more restless than she already was. The alarming atmosphere between the two of them, where they are both unsure and too wary of each other to even say anything else, was beginning to devour her emotionally.

She doesn't like it. Not one bit. And Miki was sure that her father felt the same way.

Suddenly, her phone rang, which quickly cut the tension between them like a knife. Miki thanked the heavens for the distraction since she really needed to run away from the apprehensive atmosphere that was around her and her father.

She pulled out her phone and swiped the screen open. It was from the girls' group chat, as Nakamura was the one who sent it. Quickly, Miki opened the app and read her message.

**RIO: **Miki you ready? 3

Miki's eyes widened and quickly typed out her reply.

**J-MY: **Yeah, I'm about to head out!

**RIO: **Great! See you there!

Miki immediately pocketed her phone and stuffed her wallet into her bag. She then faced her father once again, "Dad, I have to go."

Her father just nodded in response and simply moved out of her way.

Miki then muttered a small 'thanks' then walked past him and made her way towards the shoe rack, where she changed into her white vans.

"I'm off!" She announced before shutting the door.

* * *

"Miki!" Nakamura's enthusiastic cheer rang out when Miki neared the train station. The other blonde wore a very casual combination of 3/4 sleeved pink shirt, calf-length white pants, and a pair of white runners. Nakamura had her hair in its usual loose manner and carried a cream-coloured stringed bag.

A smile formed onto Miki's lips as she approached Nakamura, who was already with the other girls.

It appears that the clothes they wore for today were very casual. Yada wore a simple combination of a yellow shirt, tucked under a white denim skirt. A similar combination was on Hayami as she put on a white loose short-sleeved shirt that was tucked onto her high waist denim shorts. Kurahashi, on the other hand, wore a simple but cute combination of a cream turtle neck sweater over her red plaid flowy skirt that reached above her knees. Coincidentally, like her and Nakamura, they all wore white running shoes.

"Happy Birthday, my loves!" Nakamura cheered as she lunged towards the taller blonde, tightly clinging on her left arm in an instant. Miki found herself laughing when the shorter began nuzzling her head onto her shoulder.

Sighing, Miki raised her free hand and gently patted Nakamura's head with a small smile. "Thank you, my dear~" She recited out the message she sent earlier this morning.

One by one, each of the other girls gave her a hug as they greeted her a happy birthday, with Kurahashi's being the longest as Miki doesn't seem to want to let her go.

Their first destination was a thrift store that was nearby, in which Miki excitedly ran towards the moment it came into her field of view. The action stunned the girls for a moment before they quickly followed her inside.

"I've never bought anything on thrift before..." Kurahashi sheepishly admitted as she watched Miki going through the rack of jeans displayed. Surprised, Miki quickly turned her head to her and blinked owlishly. "Really?"

Kurahashi shook her head in response. "I've also never been to one..."

"I've been to one," Yada piped in, "but I've never bought anything yet." She added, which Hayami nodded agreeably to, meaning that it was the same case for the latter.

"I got most of my clothes in thrift stores," Miki revealed, holding baggy ripped jeans, which was similar to the one she wore yesterday. "In fact, what I'm wearing right now all came from thrift stores," she added, gesturing on her shirt and jumpsuit combination. "Even this bucket hat."

The three girls exchanged looks of agreement and nodded towards each other and her.

"We'll try looking for something we like!" Kurahashi announced, determined. But before Miki could even give her response, they all went around the store in their separate ways

Miki just shook her head in slight exasperation, continuing her search for new jeans.

Then Nakamura, who was on the other aisle, enthusiastically called out to her. "Miki! I found black combat boots!"

"!" As quick as she could muster, Miki left the clothing rack, a pair of high waist baggy jeans hanging on her arm, and dashed towards to where the other blonde was. Nakamura happily waved at her and pointed towards the shoe rack that was next to where the flannels are located at.

Another mad dash and what met her eyes first was the black Cassandra combat boots that were placed on top of the rack, it's height outing the other boots next to it. Almost shakily, Miki carefully took one of the pair and inspected it. It looked almost new if it weren't for the scratches on its soles.

"Is it size 7..?" She muttered, checking for any sticker that indicates its shoe size and to her utter luck, it is size 7.

Biting down a really wobbly grin, Miki faced Nakamura with a very determined expression on her face. "I'm buying this," she announced in a hushed whisper. Quickly, she snatched the other pair from the shoe rack and hugged them protectively, as if anyone was planning to take them from her.

"Wah you're so cute~" Nakamura cooed, snuggling her arms around the taller girl's waist.

Miki let out a huff in reply. "Combat boots are life," she declared.

After snatching a pair of black jeans, a white flannel, a cropped hoodie, and a denim jacket, Miki went to purchase what she took and patiently waited for the other three to come back.

"That would be 9,500 yen in total, Miss," the young clerk announced, handing her two paper bags: one contained the clothes she bought and the other for the shoe box.

Nodding, Miki took the two bags with relative ease and opened her wallet, handing the clerk a ten thousand yen bill.

While waiting for her change, Miki felt a light nudge to her right and met eyes with Nakamura.

"I saw a wad of ten thousand yen cash on that wallet," the other blonde stated blankly. "Are you actually rich?"

Miki frowned at that. "It's called 'saving', Rio," she repeated her father's words earlier this morning. "And that my parents' jobs pay them well, but I'm not rich," she added after retrieving her change.

"We're back!" A cheery voice made the two blondes to turn, seeing Kurahashi waving at them with Yada and Hayami trailing behind, both seemed to be conversing to each other.

The three of them seemed to have only taken one item, as Miki realized. Kurahashi was carrying a white beret hat with cute black feather designs, on Yada's arms was a grey sweater which seems to be low cut, and Hayami hugged the denim dress overalls tightly.

Slinging an arm around Nakamura's shoulders, Miki announced to them. "We'll wait for you guys by the entrance."

"Take your time!" Nakamura followed, waving at them.

The store only had few customers inside, so walking towards the entrance, despite tightly latched onto each other, wasn't a difficulty for the two of them.

"After this, let's go to the nearest opened food place we could find," Miki informed, sighing vehemently. "I'm starving..."

Nakamura, who had just sneaked an arm around the taller girl's waist, chuckled in response. "We already had a restaurant in mind. It's on the other street."

"Oh, thank goodness," Miki turned to her and raised an eyebrow. "Say, what did you even buy? I didn't see you get anything there."

Nakamura winked at her in response. "I bought your heart~"

Miki then fondly rolled her eyes at that, slightly amused. "Yeah, love you too."

"Of course, you do~" The other blonde laughed.

* * *

"I'm home!" Miki announced while changing into her indoor shoes.

Then her mother, who she had not seen since morning, peeked out from the kitchen. "Oh, you're back already! How was your day, sweetie?"

"Good," she answered honestly, walking past her mother and is about to climb the stairs.

After leaving the thrift store, they immediately went to the previously mentioned restaurant that was located at the following street, where they had a light lunch before continuing their shopping date. They spent to longest time of the day at the cosmetics shop, where Miki took almost an hour trying to find the right shade of foundation that matches her really pale skin. After finally finding the right foundation, she took notice of a makeup brush set that was displayed at one of the aisles and quickly got herself one. She also paid for the lip tint that Nakamura took a liking to without any problem.

Then they spent the rest of the afternoon looking at shops, not really buying anything nor even entering the said shops. Yada had suggested a purikura photo booth for them to try, which they all agreed to. However, the only photo booth they could find that day was the one located at the train station, specifically the one that only produces grayscale photos. Although slightly disappointed, the girls wasted no time getting inside after Miki's remark about the grayscale photos being a pleasant aesthetic to look at.

But since the booth was rather small for all four of them to do a group photo together, through Hayami's suggestion, they all decided that Miki should take a photo with each of them by every shot. Though it was a struggle not to get in the frame when Miki takes a photo with one girl, they all managed to make it work in the end.

Turns out that Miki was right about the grayscale aesthetic being pleasing, they all were against the idea of customizing it and decided to keep it as it is. They printed out two copies, one for them to cut up and divided for each of them, and another for Miki to keep as a whole.

After that, they decided to walk her home, not without exciting chatters between them, before going to their separate ways.

Miki looked up to her mother and smiled at her. "I had fun."

"That's great!" Her mother returned the smile with her own, her emerald eyes softening.

Miki turned and climbed upstairs. "I'll be at my room," she announced.

"By the way," her mother mentioned, which caused Miki to turn back to her again. "There was a package sent to you this morning. I placed it in your room."

_A package?_

Quirking an eyebrow, Miki muttered her mother a small thanks before going to her bedroom. Turning the lights on, before she put down her bag, an unfamiliar sight at the corner of the room had caught her attention.

Cautiously, she approached on what was placed on the low table in front of the TV and surely enough, there was a giant stuffed of what looks like an alpaca placed on top of the table. Next to it, was a small bouquet of white roses and what seems to be a sealed envelope.

Miki knelt down before the table and checked the cards that are tied around the neck of the stuffed alpaca and on the ribbon of the bouquet.

With the fanciest cursive form she had ever seen, the words '_Happy Birthday'_ was written on the mentioned cards.

Suddenly, warmth began growing onto her and her eyes started to sting, knowing that any time soon, tears will start to fall. Miki felt the once stiffness on her facial muscles soften and she shifted, sitting cross-legged instead.

She took a deep breath and released it in the same manner, Miki tried to calm herself down as she gently took the envelope, and carefully unsealed it.

Taking out its contents, and to her outright resentment, the letter stuffed inside was ridiculously long. It was as if at least four long bond papers were taped together to form this scroll-like letter and it honestly surprised Miki that it was even approved to be sent.

It came to her realization as to why the paper was long when she took notice of the unpleasantly awful romanized handwriting in English by someone she knew all too well. Just the fact that the words are huge and the number of paragraphs he used was enough to give his identity away.

Leaning onto the table with a mellow smile, Miki read the letter.

* * *

**_To My Precious Sunshine,_**

**_Happy 15th!_**

**_If you're reading this letter at night, on your birthday, maybe after whatever celebration you've done with your friends, then the mission is a success! _****_It's the first time I've ever given you a gift without personally seeing you, so I was very anxious through the process of putting this all together._**

**_I wrote this letter and bought your gift last Friday, so I have plenty of time to pull this off. The plan was to call your mom this morning so that I could ask her if she can retrieve the package and arrange them in your room. I don't really like your father, so I can't really trust him into doing this._**

**_Just now, I literally laughed at myself for insulting your father like that, why am I like this? If you were with me as I write this, you would've thrown the alpaca at my face hahaha._**

**_Well, if you were with me. Gosh, it hasn't been a year yet and I'm already feeling lonely._**

**_I missed you, you know that?_**

**_Of course, you know that. I tell you that every time we call, silly me._**

**_Okay, enough about me. This letter was meant for you. It's your birthday, after all._**

**_How are you doing? Good? Are you feeling better now? You've gone through a lot of stress ever since we've parted, so I'm really hoping that you are doing fine now. You do have plenty of rest ever since you've dropped out, after all. You're probably back to your healthy, stubborn, and strong usual self. I can't really see you clearly from our video calls, so I hope you don't mind me asking._**

**_Honestly, you are so strong and even one of the most stubborn people I've met in my life. Do you have any idea how much I panicked when I received news about you passing out in the middle of a class presentation? And what was that about you doing an entire research project, which was apparently meant for a group of eight people, on your own? Are you trying to kill yourself mentally? Argh you're such a pain, you know that? And the fact that, despite me already knowing all about these, you never mention them to me whenever we call just makes it even worse._**

**_Because of that stunt you pulled, I've been paranoid lately that I might end up doing the same thing. We don't want that. Period._**

**_But thanks for the warning, though._**

**_Supporting others in service is a wonderful thing, I understand that. However, make sure that you also support yourself._**

**_And that drives me to get you that giant stuffed alpaca. Their symbolism just loudly screams 'Jenny Miki Yamazaki', it's not even funny._**

**_Would you like to bother knowing what they symbolize or nah? Oh wait, this is a letter. I shouldn't be able to hear you._**

**_So, knowing the symbolism it is then!_**

**_You have the ability to adapt to any situation you find yourself in. Know that whatever loads you are carrying right now, you will be able to manage and see them through. With that in mind, alpacas could be reminding you that your biggest focus should be yourself and that personal growth should be you highest priority of all times._**

**_You also tend to carry the weight of the world on your shoulders and have a strong connection to the environment and its subtle changes. If you are treated unfairly, you're very vocal about it. You also choose your friends carefully._**

**_Basically, alpacas are symbolizing that you have the strength and endurance to reach your goal. Also, they're reminding you that you are worrying too much and carrying too large of a load._**

**_Yes, I read these online. And no, I did not copy and pasted them. I paraphrased them!_**

**_To summarize those three paragraphs, TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF!_**

**_I can't keep reminding you that every day since I'm still going to be stuck here for the next four months. _****_Which is why you better drill that information into your memory so that should be what comes to your mind whenever you see that alpaca._**

**_Your safety and happiness should always come first before everything else. I cannot stress this enough._**

**_Just... stay happy, alright? You just turned 15 today, you still have decades to go. So live your life to the fullest. You and your life are very precious to me and I don't know what I would do if anything happened to you._**

**_Happy Birthday, My Sunshine. I wish you all the happiness until the end._**

**_From the bottom of my heart,_**

**_I love you._**

**_With Sincere Affection,_**

**_Jungyoon_**

* * *

**A/N:**

**I am done! Please take note that after the second scene with Kitsune, everything else was written in less than a day without any proof-reading nor grammar and spelling checks. So pardon all the mistakes that you've encountered!**

**I was meant to have this done this morning but I immediately got stuck with the last scene, no not the letter. But thankfully I managed to go through it!**

**I'm still sleep-deprived, but since my mind is back on full gear, I'm gonna start replying to reviews!**

**_TwelveTurquoise12: _****This chapter just outright stated Miki's circle of friends, so you'll know on which 3E kids she'll be hanging out with a lot. Unless you want some back of the class shenanigans, Karma is just a seatmate. And this is what my old school had done to me, giving me the ability to project the feelings of a student who was played unfairly. Looking back, I think I did execute the breakdown rather well :)**

**_Guest: _Thank you ehhehe! I feel like I knew who you are lol. Miki is the only OC I've worked hard to develop and I hope that I could showcase her character here well!**

**_Greengargouille: _****I'm like really picky about what I write and I usually like to make them as detailed as possible, so that the events could be easily visualized without having to guess additional elements. Which is why this chapter kind of frustrates me since a number of scenes are somewhat vague with its setting and all. But I don't want to make this chapter really long so I literally had to summarize some events, against my will. Actually, I did consider sleeping in the entire morning. But my brain was still very active until it was like around past 3 AM when I slept, but I woke up at 7 so it's no use lol.**

**Thank you for reading and please review if you ever had the time! :)**

**~松原**


	4. Supernatural Life Form Time

**Disclaimer: Anything you recognize belongs to their respective owners.**

**A/N: I'd like to inform you that this is a side character and OC-centric story. So please don't be confused if your favourite main characters won't be appearing much.**

**And also very slow updates.**

* * *

**TARGET ON!**

**"Supernatural Life Form Time"**

Miki had decided that she knew Okajima long enough to start reprimanding him physically.

She had finally come into that decision when she, Chiba, Sugaya, Mimura, and Okajima occupied the same booth in a small family restaurant located at the other side of Kunugigaoka, exchanging topics that ranged from school to plans for the rest of spring break. The recent topic that they had been currently arguing about was the new poster reveal for the upcoming Sonic Ninja sequel that was to be premiered in June.

While most of them shared their respective thoughts and ideas, albeit a bit more calmly, Okajima, in particular, has been exceptionally passionate in the exchange.

"Karrie-chan is not Karrie-chan without the big boobs being emphasised! Whoever the actress that's gonna star as her in the sequel should do her body justice in the poster!" By the window's seat, Okajima loudly claimed, crossing his arms while flaring his nose dramatically.

Next to Sugaya, who was currently busying himself sketching leisurely, Mimura sighed. "Realistically speaking, that's gonna cause a lot of problems," he mildly argued. "Just be grateful at least that the casting is accurate enough."

"Many movies managed to get away with it! It's not a problem at all!" Okajima breezily waved his argument off, still unconvinced.

Sitting directly in front of him, Miki's eye visibly twitched with annoyance. She really wanted to strangle him at this point. "Okajima," she snapped, her cold gaze fixed on the unsuspecting pervert.

Confused by the harshness in her tone, Okajima turned to Miki with a raised eyebrow, only to meet her piercing red eyes that studied him with a predator's unwavering attention.

Once their eyes met, Miki sharpened her glare further, a snarl forming on her face. "If you don't shut up within five seconds, I will skin you alive."

In an instant, Okajima closed his mouth and shrunk in his seat, eyes darting everywhere but her.

Sitting next to Miki, Chiba sighed in relief. "Thank goodness," he breathed out, blankly stirring the melting ice cubes in his plastic cup with a straw.

"We understand why you're 'frustrated' at this point, Okajima. But you're really loud," Sugaya commented dryly, briefly pausing from his sketching. "It's kind of embarrassing," he then returned to his work.

Miki raised an eyebrow at the artist's sugarcoating. "Kind of? It is embarrassing," she stressed exasperatedly, her eyes darting back to Okajima, who was still avoiding her gaze. "Like dude, we're in public. I don't care how perverted you are at this point, but can't you at least tone your voice down by at least… ninety percent?"

With a huff, she leaned back to her seat with her arms firmly crossed. "Teenagers these days, my gosh..." She sighed vehemently.

Mimura let out a chuckle at her performance. "You're talking as if you're not a teenager yourself," he joked.

"Well that's funny," Miki's shoulders bounced when she huffed out a startled laugh. "Many times I feel like I'm a lot older than I really am."

Suddenly, Chiba lightly snorted at her response. "I always tell myself that I'm born in the wrong generation," he mentioned.

"Right?!" Miki nodded at him agreeably. Her eyes then roamed over the boys in front of them before letting out a huff of breath. "I don't know about you three but I feel like I was supposed to be born in the '90s."

"The 90's?" Chiba titled his head at her in amusement. "Makes sense if it's you. I like the early 2000's better," he claimed.

Miki rolled her eyes in response. "Shut it, you punk."

While they exchange sasses, Sugaya's eyes quickly left his work and swept over the duo's outfits, specifically taking note of their colour schemes. "Both of you looked depressing, what the heck?"

At that moment, the two tore their eyes off of each other and separately scrutinized themselves.

"Depressing how?" Miki questioned, eyes all over herself. All she wore was a black zipped-up jacket over a grey shirt, which she tucked under her black cargo pants. Her hair was loose and currently free from any head accessories, which was the black bucket hat that was on the table.

Chiba, who wore a black jacket with white sleeves over a white shirt and black pants, shrugged in response. "Beats me."

"Oh... it's the boots, isn't it?" Miki deadpanned, raising her leg a little to reveal the black combat boots, the same pair she bought on her birthday, where her cargo pants were tucked into.

Chiba slightly tilted his head to get a proper view of what she was showing him and shook his head. "Not really, since we can't properly see them."

The other three boys just blankly watched the duo's exchange, not really sure about what to make of the situation and, at the same time, refused to actually correct them. "I feel like you two are completely missing the point here," Mimura commented tiredly.

At that, the mentioned duo's eyes, or at least they seemed to, continuously darted between them and at each other, before exchanging confused gestures.

"Anyways, I'll get myself another coke..." After clearing his throat rather awkwardly, Chiba abruptly stood up from his seat and began walking away.

"Wait!" Miki quickly called out, rummaging through her bag and pulled out her wallet. "Give me another large parfait, please? Thank you so many!" She grinned widely, handing him the money.

Chiba took a moment to scoff at her before walking away. "Yeah, yeah... More calories to burn this afternoon, coming right up!"

Miki leaned back into her seat comfortably, spinning her phone using her thumb and middle finger as she stared aimlessly through the glass window. Few weeks have passed since the moon incident and more people began going out to the streets, assured that there were no further incidents have occurred since then.

It would only take a few days before they are all back to the mountain, trying to accommodate the rundown building and the discrimination until some of them managed to fight their way back to the main campus. But luckily, although the atmosphere inside the classroom can be a bit too stuffy, it is lax enough for them to loosen up once in a while. Not to mention how very encouraging Yukimura-sensei was to them, it wouldn't be too bad of a school year.

There was, of course, also the promise she made with the chairman, which she will fulfil in the upcoming term.

As if a thought abruptly came to her mind, she suddenly jolted up in her seat and looked at Sugaya, Mimura, and Okajima intently, who all somehow felt her gaze on them. With a tensed expression, Miki's eyes widened in realization.

"Did he just diss me?"

* * *

"After a month of getting back into dancing shape, walking on this mountain suddenly isn't all that bad!" Miki laughed once they reached the mountain top, arms rested inside her pockets.

Chiba trailed tiredly behind her, stopping himself from letting out another yawn. "Well, that's nice..." He breathed out, seemingly too tired to even form an expression on his face.

"You seem a lot tired today," Miki commented, quickly noticing how much paler he was than usual. "You good?"

Nodding, he stifled yet another yawn. "Yeah, I just couldn't sleep properly last night for some reason," he casually admitted. "Must be after-effects from the last exam season."

"Ugh, I hate that," Miki grimaced, wincing for further emphasis. "Or maybe you decided to stay up late just so that you could miss the first-day individual introductions?" She grinned teasingly. "After all, oversleeping is a good excuse for a first day."

Scoffing, Chiba rolled his eyes in response. "Ryuunosuke from a year ago would never say 'yes' to that."

"What about this year, then?" Stopping her tracks, Miki turned back to him and smirked, her arms crossed.

Also pausing, Chiba lowered his head in thought, as if assessing her question. Then he quickly walked past her, but Miki didn't miss the suppressed smile on his face. "Maybe."

Spinning to where he was heading, Miki realized that he ran towards the building, seeing that he had already disappeared through the entrance.

_That guy... _Shaking her head exasperatedly with a smile, Miki was about to continue her steps until she felt a pair of arms wrapping around her waist.

"Wow even with those layers of clothing, I could still feel your abs!" A voice marvelled, its owner's arms still tightly wrapped around Miki's waist.

Miki stood still, both arms raised awkwardly up to her shoulder level, her jaw clenching at the stiff position she was forced into. "Good morning too, Rio," she gritted out forcibly.

Grinning, the other blonde had let go of her waist, allowing Miki to lower her arms, which Nakamura decided to latch onto one of them instead.

Without any other words needed to be exchanged, the two blondes walked towards the building in sync, still latched onto each other.

"I've noticed you've been hanging out with Chiba-kun a lot lately..." Nakamura stated, smirking mischievously.

Miki raised an eyebrow at the shorter blonde's tone. "I like hanging out with him. I resonate with him the most."

"Of course you would," Nakamura answered, now grinning, "you're like a louder version of him."

Scoffing, Miki rolled her eyes at the remark, despite still letting her arm be latched onto.

They didn't talk after that, even after entering the building. Although there were distant chatters from some classmates who had arrived earlier, the only distinct noise that could be heard was their soles simultaneously clicking onto the floorboard in a harmonious manner.

"Yukimura-sensei isn't here yet," after minutes of pure silence, Miki suddenly spoke out when they had walked past the faculty room.

Nakamura shrugged in response before a teasing grin crept onto her face. "Maybe she's with her man?" She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively for emphasis.

"Probably..." Miki returned the teasing grin with her own. The two blondes stopped in their tracks, their contrasting eyes in colour boring onto each other as their teasing grins mirrored, all the while still latching onto each other.

After a few seconds, Miki let out a chuckle, tearing her crimson eyes off from Nakamura's blue orbs. Almost automatically, both blondes continued their steps in unison.

"With the way she reacted last time, I don't think she'd even have the heart to neglect her teaching just to spend time with her boyfriend," Miki mused, grinning at the memory of when the class first found out about Aguri seemingly having a life partner. The young teacher was extremely flustered at the amount of attention the class was giving onto the topic, that it took a while for her to get them back on track and start taking attendance.

"True..." Nakamura agreed, finally letting go of Miki's waist and instead, clung to her arm. "The traffic's kinda bad this morning. Maybe that's why sensei's a bit late than usual," she supposed.

Miki just slightly nodded in agreement. "It's also the first day of classes," she added, "So naturally, the rush hour's pretty bad today."

They soon arrived in front of their classroom and Miki, being the closest to the entrance, reached out her hand to slide the door open.

"Good morning, people!" With a more roguish grin, Miki loudly announced the moment she's sure her classmates can see her.

As if on cue, Nakamura, still clinging onto her arm, flamboyantly revealed herself to her classmates- a similar grin also present on her face. "Morning peeps!"

Seemingly used to their clamorous greeting, without many reactions from the loud announcements, few of their classmates who have arrived earlier returned the greeting in a more quiet manner.

Miki and Nakamura's matching grins remained as they began to march across the classroom in unison and approached a rather small group formed at the very back, arms still locked.

The group in question, which consists of Chiba, Mimura, Hara and Hayami, turned to the approaching duo and greeted them once they had closed the distance.

"Morning!" Said duo returned the greetings in near-perfect sync, leaning onto different sides of Okuda's vacant table, as the twin-braided girl had yet to arrive.

Almost immediately, Miki noticed Okajima slumping all over Sugaya's table rather gloomily and if she listened carefully, she could hear the faint scratchy noises the resident pervert seemed to be releasing in distress.

"He's already like this when I arrived," Chiba, who was occupying her table, answered the question that was brewing in her mind. He slightly leaned forward and reached his hand to her.

Already knowing his intention, using her free arm, Miki had let the bag that was originally hanging to her shoulder to slide down to her open palm. Catching the straps with a tight grip, she handed the bag to Chiba's outreached hand.

"And I must say, that's some good vocal fry coming out of his mouth. I'm almost jealous," she commented slyly, grinning in amusement.

Chiba let out a light chuckle at her remark, still proceeding with the task of hanging her bookbag onto the hook at the side of her table. "I'm really tempted to record that fry and maybe put it in a song or something," he simply admitted with a noticeable smirk, not really caring if Okajima could hear him.

"If you did, can you give me a copy? I think my sister's gonna have a blast messing with the sample," Miki's grin widened at that, inwardly cackling.

Chiba shook his head exasperatedly at her suggestion, fishing out his phone from his pocket.

"Now you're just persuading me," he mildly complained, unlocking his phone then opened a voice recording application.

Nakamura, who was just amused at their explicit jibe at Okajima, finally moved and let go of Miki's left arm. Leaving her bookbag onto Okuda's table, she casually took Chiba's seemingly offered phone and crouched a bit too closely to Okajima's slumped form, grinning almost maniacally but still quiet enough not to let out a burst of single laughter.

Hayami and Hara, who were initially conversing at the side softly, soon quieted down when they noticed that Nakamura was about to record the noises that Okajima had been making.

The small area surrounding the group was very quiet for the first few seconds as they all watched Okajima in anticipation. They all stayed frozen on their spots with baited breaths, even Nakamura hardly moved despite her uncomfortable sitting position.

Then a dry, raspy sound emerged from the silence almost loudly, causing not only the group but also others who were listening nearby, to bite down their laughter in hopes of not getting them recorded. They had stayed like that for a while as Okajima drawled out the vocal fry for a surprisingly long time, with the raspiness getting harsher the longer he drawled out.

Luckily, the group was able to control their facial muscles and not let a single noise out of their mouths.

Until Okajima took in a sharp breath.

One word. Chaos.

Chiba was the first to let out a loud cackle, turning away from them and towards the back wall while covering his mouth sloppily.

Miki felt her legs giving out as she burst out laughing, crouching down while balancing herself with one hand on the floor and the other gripping on the table.

Nakamura was uncontrollably shaking with laughter that she nearly fell out of balance had Miki not broken her fall on time.

Even with his arms crossed in an almost authoritative manner, Mimura jerked his body backwards while turning sideways as he roared with laughter.

Even Hayami and Hara, despite being the quieter of the bunch, still dissolved into laughter while covering their mouths with both hands.

The first one to regain their composure was obviously Chiba, despite still letting out more mellowed chuckles when he turned back to face the group. He stood up from Miki's table and approached Nakamura. He bent down towards her and gestured to his phone, which was obediently given by the still-laughing blonde.

Miki soon after also regained her composure, pulling herself back up by using the table she was tightly gripping onto. After patting away the dust on her left palm from touching the floor earlier, she held out her other hand towards Nakamura.

Nakamura crouched still, her laughter beginning to drawl out longer. The smile on her face was so wide that her cheeks might start to hurt if she didn't let her face rest any time soon and Miki was sure that her face was beginning to turn purple.

"Girl, get a hold of yourself!" Miki laughed out, holding out her outreached hand even closer to the other blonde.

Now more wheezing than laughing, Nakamura clumsily tried to catch Miki's outreached hand, barely missing it at every attempt.

Still wearing a grin, Miki just sighed out her exasperation and just used her outreached hand to grab the one that Nakamura was using to reach her. Grabbing her wrist securely, Miki proceeded to grab the other one after Nakamura first grabbed back.

Once she was sure that Nakamura was grabbing both of her wrists back, with very little effort, she easily pulled Nakamura back into a standing position.

Perhaps she pulled a little bit too strongly because Nakamura ended up falling into her shoulders, still laughing.

Rolling her eyes at the other blonde's obvious intention of hugging her, Miki tasked herself to promptly fix the back of Nakamura's skirt, which was dangerously folded upwards.

The laughter around the group soon died down, leaving soft chuckles and unsuppressed smiles. Even Nakamura finally stopped laughing and decided to catch her breath while resting onto Miki's shoulders.

Miki's knees soon started to ache a little from standing too long and took a few small steps back, Nakamura following suit. Once she felt where Okuda's vacant table was using her free hand, she let herself lean on it, almost sitting down.

Sensing Miki's mild struggle with standing and carrying her weight at the same time, Nakamura decided to let go of the taller girl and occupied the other side of Okuda's table, which was initially their positions before messing with Okajima.

"It just came to me how tall you actually are, Miki," Nakamura commented.

Miki just raised an eyebrow at the comment. "Definitely genetics. My mom is a lot taller than I am, though."

From the corner of her eye, Miki noticed how Mimura's head quickly shot up at her reply, eyes wide open.

Looking almost terrified, Mimura asked her, "Miki-san, how tall is your mom?"

"To be honest, I really don't know exactly," Miki firstly admitted. "But I'm pretty sure that she's definitely taller than Ryoma," she pointed towards the newly arrived tall guy in question, who looked at her absurdly at the mention of his name.

Noticing that Terasaka was now paying attention to the topic due to his name being mentioned out of nowhere, Miki turned to him. "Hey, Ryoma. Remember the tall woman who picked me up last Saturday?"

"Yeah?" Terasaka simply answered. The look of mild confusion on his face soon contorted into pure shock once he finally registered the taller blonde's words. "That was your mom?!" He exclaimed.

Miki stared at him incredulously. "I already told you before that she's picking me up. Why are you so surprised?"

She then shifted her attention back to Mimura before Terasaka could say anything back to her in defence.

"Terasaka-kun is the tallest in our class," Mimura stated, as a matter of fact, his expression growing more horrified. "It's terrifying to think that your mom is taller than him."

Miki had to agree with Mimura. After all, a very authoritative woman like her mother who stood above six feet definitely sounds especially terrifying for people who lived in a country where the average height for women is very much lower.

"Tell me about it-"

Another long raspy croak from Okajima, a lot louder this time, cut off Miki's reply.

"What the heck?" The group all turned towards the source of the voice and saw Sugaya, who had just arrived, looking at Okajima incredulously.

Miki raised her hand to give him a small wave. "Morning, Sugaya!" She greeted, giving him a small smile.

"Morning..." Sugaya barely greeted back as his eyes never left Okajima's slumped form who, mind you, was on his table this whole time. A few seconds later, he shifted his gaze towards Miki and gave her a confused look. Miki just shrugged and shook her head in response, implying that she also had no idea about what happened to the resident pervert.

Miki then turned to Chiba and raised an eyebrow. "Don't tell me he's still disappointed at the new movie poster reveal," she said flatly, unamused.

Chiba just shrugged in response and turned towards Mimura, who just sighed. "He said he couldn't 'see them', apparently," he answered tiredly.

"Ah..." Both Nakamura and Chiba's mouths hung open in exasperation, not really surprised at the answer.

Miki, on the other hand, just massaged her temples a bit forcibly in hopes of calming herself down.

"Ya," she barked, "a good number of Sonic Ninja's demography are children who're younger than us, mostly the ones that still need their parent's permission to go to the cinemas."

Seeing that Sugaya's table was only next to the one she's sitting on, she only took a few stomps to go in front of Okajima's slumped form.

Not so gently, she slammed her left palm onto the small space of the desk, the impact causing the people around her to jump in surprise. Even Okajima, in his presumably disappointed state, visibly jerked in shock.

"Hot heroine or not, it is still a movie that is targeted towards preteens and younger. A more provocative poster will only bring them nothing but backlash for being too inappropriate, especially from protective parents," Miki let out a deep sigh and took another deep breath. She then removed her hand from the table and stood up straight, all the while crossing her arms.

Nakamura then took the opportunity to pipe in. "Also, Olivia James is the perfect Karrie!"

"True," Miki just raised her eyebrows as a form of nod, grinning also. "If how she's gonna be portrayed in the sequel is close to what I think, surely Okajima won't be disappointed," she then suppressed her grin when Okajima's ears twitched at her words.

Miki's eyes then trained all over the surrounding group, assessing her options as quickly as she can. Sugaya is out of the question as the guy had just arrived and nearly had no clue of what was going on, and so does Terasaka could care less about Okajima of all people. Miki had figured that Hara is definitely not the type to engage in such talks and there is no way that Hayami would even utter a word towards Okajima.

So, that leaves her with two choices.

But before her eyes could even dart towards the remaining two, a tired sigh was let out.

Scratching the back of his head in near annoyance, Chiba briefly gave Miki a small glance before turning to Okajima.

"Oi, they said that Olivia James is a G-cup," he said in the flattest tone he could muster.

"A G-CUP!" With that loud yell, Okajima quickly stood up, albeit a bit too excitedly, a complete contrast to his depressing form milliseconds prior.

But the moment his eyes left the darkness that was from the arms that were initially covering them, he saw red.

"Good to see you in such high spirits, Okajima!" Miki trilled, smiling a bit too sweetly at him that it almost looked menacing.

"Wait I-!"

Miki's smile instantly dropped.

Stepping towards the left side of Sugaya's table, without much effort, Miki grabbed one of Okajima's arms and roughly yanked him towards her. Swiftly dodging to the side so that the pervert wouldn't fall into her front, she then grabbed the back of his collar before he could even reach Hayami.

"Anyways, Sugaya's here and he needs his table. So you're going back to yours!"

"I can't believe I'm actually friends with that guy..." Chiba sighed, slouching as he watched Miki happily dragging Okajima to his table by the collar.

Sugaya, who was now in front of him, currently occupying Okuda's table as Miki seemingly had no plans of returning to it yet, just gave him a reassuring pat on the shoulder.

"Good for you that we now have Miki who can put him in his place," he comforted. "You don't have to tolerate his antics alone any longer."

"I don't think Miki-san would even want to be one to constantly put him in his place though..." Mimura countered.

Nakamura's mouth hung open. "You bet she won't. Her patience is still limited no matter how calm her approach is..." She then shook her head, turning to Chiba.

"Say, Chiba-kun. Can you play the recording again?" She asked, her laughter following.

Chiba cracked a small smile in response, pulling out his phone obediently.

Mimura, Sugaya, and Nakamura all crowded around him while he opened the voice recording application once again.

"Was it the noise Okajima's making when I came?" Sugaya questioned in mild amusement.

Chiba briefly grunted in reply before he pressed play.

Just like what happened minutes earlier, a loud and raspy sound emerged from the phone's speakers.

Both Chiba and Nakamura simultaneously jerked forward while clutching their stomachs, their cackles beginning to sound similar the longer they drawl out.

Mimura stumbled sidewards as he laughed, leaning against the back wall to avoid falling down.

"What the heck?" Sugaya laughed, covering his mouth. "Who gave you the idea to record it?"

"No one," Chiba answered, regaining most of his composure again. "Miki just gave me the final push."

Which would have been a shock to him had they not begun hanging out after the second week of March. The idea of Miki feeding into some of his dark desires would have been far fetched in the past, especially when she had initially given him the impression that she would be more calm and mature for someone his age.

But alas, his new friend began showing her true colours in less than a week after they have hung out. Miki's initial exhaustion induced laughter in response to Okajima's antics soon transitioned to visibly glaring at him at every perverted joke she was sure Okajima was about to make.

Chiba always finds himself amazed at how Miki would threaten to strangle Okajima in one instant, then would ask him if he's coping well with the recent events in another. The sudden shifts in her mood had initially put him off, but soon he had come to accept that it is something that shouldn't be a big deal in the first place.

Either way, Miki saves him from having another second-hand embarrassment whenever Okajima does anything remotely stupid and he could never be more thankful for that.

As much as he wanted to ponder over Miki's personality further, Chiba couldn't let himself drown in his own thoughts when he felt a pair of prying eyes not leaving him for almost a minute.

"Hm?" He looked behind him, only to meet Nakamura's rather curious blue eyes. "Is something wrong, Nakamura-san?"

"Just had a thought..." Nakamura replied, her eyes still not leaving his form. "You're a lot more... expressive, I noticed. I kinda expected that you'd keep yourself from laughing or something." She pointed out.

Chiba blinked, barely registering her words.

Now that he thought about it, he did let himself become looser around other people within the past month. He doesn't usually laugh loudly when he sees anything funny, nor would he actually speak out his mind when something irritates him. He was sure that he was still as closed off as he remembered when he first came into class E.

So what changed that?

"I think it's nice, actually," Nakamura's voice broke him out of his reverie, blue eyes still locked onto him. "It means that you're getting more comfortable around us," she then gave him a wide grin.

Chiba quickly broke eye contact at that, shifting uncomfortably in his seat while feeling his face mildly heating up. "I suppose that's true..." he muttered in response, scratching the back of his head awkwardly.

"I think that's enough of me being nice today!" Nakamura proudly announced, walking towards Okuda's table to retrieve her bag. "I see a blue boy with a particularly cute hairstyle today at the corner over there and I can't miss such a great opportunity!"

As she reached for her book bag, Nakamura quickly paused. "Ah, one more thing," she turned back to Chiba, "can you also send me that recording, Chiba-kun?"

Chiba used his other hand to give her a thumbs up, nodding also in response.

Nakamura grinned at that before walking towards whoever had caught her attention this time.

"Nagisa-kun~!" Was what Chiba had last heard from her until he began tuning out farther voices.

Clenching his jaw, Chiba buried his mouth with one of his palms, his face heating up more. "Shut up, Sugaya. Stop giving me that look. I'm already embarrassed as it is."

"Huh? But I haven't said anything yet," Sugaya responded, smiling innocently.

* * *

"Yeah, that choreo is gonna be really difficult to pull off if your technique focuses more towards fluidity," Miki remarked after she had finished watching the video Yada had shown her on her phone, squatting in front of Kurahashi's table.

Hayami, who was currently occupying Kurahashi's table, nodded at Miki's remark. "Is it due to lack of power?" She suggested.

Miki hummed in thought as she stood up. "Well if you put it in simple terms, yeah," she answered, partly sitting on Kurahashi's table.

"Here's the thing. Usually, dancers with more fluid technique would naturally choose fluidity over power when executing moves however they like," Miki started straightforwardly, her focused eyes finding their way back to the phone screen as she rewinded the video she was watching.

"This would usually lead them to lack powerful variations in moves that require more strength and pressure," Miki handed the phone back to Yada, who was leaning against the vacant table next to Kurahashi's.

Miki pointed towards the screen then stood up. "There's this bit in the choreography where you like, push yourself away strongly," she demonstrated the said action, her arms becoming blurry to the naked eye due to how quickly she had moved them.

"I myself would be able to execute that amount of power with my arms alone since my technique is more strength-oriented," Miki explained, slightly raising both of her arms for emphasis.

Then she gestured towards Yada. "Whereas you, Touka. You wouldn't be able to execute that power with your arms alone since you do lack the required strength."

Yada nodded slowly, contemplating Miki's words.

"But luckily," Miki quickly added, "you have such great control of your torso. So you can do things like pumping your chest to amplify the movement of your arms, to make it look like you're not lacking power at all."

Miki already lifted her arms, ready to demonstrate again. But then she paused, a small blush on her face while awkwardly scratching the back of her head.

"But, I'll demonstrate that later when there aren't that many people around us," Miki laughed sheepishly, inwardly reminding herself that nearly everyone is already present.

"Yukimura-sensei probably wouldn't mind us staying here for a bit after school, right?" Yada suggested. "It's the only time today where not many people are around."

Miki blinked at Yada owlishly, mildly confused at her words. "Ahh right, it's the first day of school… so we're gonna have a school assembly this lunch then," she realized, a frown forming on her face.

The only disadvantage at being a transfer student, Miki supposed, was the fact that she barely knew anything about how the Class E system really works in general. There were only a few bits she could grasp from what she briefly witnessed on the day she first transferred and from trying to comfort Kurahashi one day after being apparently talked down by her former classmates.

With those two examples alone, Miki had concluded that she officially hated the Class E system. No amount of excuses for implementing said system can change her mind at this point.

Honestly, just thinking about it is enough to make Miki's blood boil. The memory of her trying to comfort a disheartened Kurahashi just pisses her off even more.

"Speaking of Yukimura-sensei," running her hands through her fringes in irritation, Miki decided that it's better not to touch the subject.

"It's almost 9 and there's no sign of her yet," Miki glanced at the front door, sighing. "Isogai-kun!" She called out to the dark-haired boy who is standing not too far away, walking towards him.

Isogai, a boy around Miki's height who has dark-brown rather spiky hair and soft brown eyes, one of the class representatives, turned to her. "Is there something wrong, Yamazaki-san?"

Miki inwardly cringed at being called by her surname. But for the sake of being answered directly, she decided to brush it off for now.

"Did Yukimura-sensei inform you in advance that she might be late today?" Miki firstly asked, trying her best to tone down her growing concern. "It's almost time for homeroom and usually, she would arrive 30 minutes early."

Isogai shook his head in reply, his expression strangely mirroring Miki's own suppressed concern. "Sensei wasn't able to give me," he then gestured towards a tall girl with a low ponytail, the other class representative, who was rather occupied at the moment, "or Kataoka-san any of her contact information. So we also don't know why sensei hasn't arrived yet."

Miki held back a sigh at that, but her concern was beginning to show through her expression. "Traffic, maybe?" She suggested, shifting uncomfortably.

"Maybe," Isogai hesitantly answered. "Today is a lot busier, after all."

"I guess-" Miki completely cut herself off when her ears began picking up soft footsteps from a distance, her eyes widening in alarm.

"I hear footsteps," she hastily informed Isogai, although she was sure that he already knew that himself. "Yukimura-sensei is already here."

As Isogai and Kataoka immediately began instructing the whole class to return to their respective seats, Miki quickly walked back to Yada and Hayami, who both were already going back to their seats.

Miki hurriedly walked past them and immediately sat on her seat the instant she reached her table, taking slow deep breaths to calm her nerves down.

By the time the footsteps began to sound louder, everyone had already gone to their seats. Even Terasaka and his small group of friends were surprisingly complying and behaving themselves.

The footsteps suddenly halted, which had raised the already tensed atmosphere inside the classroom.

Then there was a knock on the door.

"Come in," Isogai answered, his posture tensed.

The door slid open immediately. However, instead of their ever so cheerful teacher Yukimura-sensei, three unfamiliar figures walked into the room.

Each of them sported stern expressions in their faces, and paired with their very formal wear and uptight postures, they all seemed to be very authoritative.

Miki's arms tensed significantly as she watched the man in the middle make his way towards the podium in front of the classroom. He had short spiky raven hair and sharp red eyes. He stood tall and was handsome, dressed in a black suit. Miki almost thought that he looked like he belonged into some kind of special opts team with the way his calculating stare roamed over the class, as if assessing each and every student present.

When two sharp red eyes briefly met, Miki quickly straightened her posture, her eyes not leaving the man's even if he already broke eye contact.

Miki doesn't really consider her people reading skills to be accurate, but in that brief eye contact, she could already tell as much that, with the amount of intensity the man held in his stare, he came into the classroom for a very important reason and must be listened to with full attention.

The man cleared his throat. "Good morning, Class E," he first greeted politely, pulling everyone's attention towards him.

But before he could say another word, the door slid open once again.

All of the students' eyes shifted towards the door, waiting for another figure to step inside with baited breath. Few seconds went by and the said awaited person had yet to announce their presence.

"Hello."

Another voice spoke out, causing the students to shift their gazes back to where the man in the black suit stood.

Or where he was supposed to be standing.

What stood before them this time, however, was some kind of gigantic, yellow... _What the fuck is that?!_

Miki shut her eyes in response, rubbing them in the process then violently blinking them, in hopes of getting rid of the morning drowsiness she believed was making her see things.

At the final blink, she sharpened her senses and opened her eyes wide, expecting whatever the fuck that creature was to just disappear before her.

It's still there.

_Okay. I haven't lost it yet, hopefully. I'm not seeing things. _Miki tried to reassure herself.

"Hologram?" Finding the will to speak out, Miki hardly paid attention to how her voice cracked noticeably, still disturbed at the ridiculous sight. "I didn't know Japan is that advanced enough to have already developed very realistic holograms."

"He's very real, unfortunately," the man in a black suit from before, who now stood beside the abomination, answered with a sigh. "Please, pay full attention. I will explain everything."

_So "he's" real... There's a giant yellow tentacled creature in our classroom. A giant yellow tentacled creature. That exists. I'm not losing it._

After moments of trying to convince herself that the yellow creature before her was very much real, Miki finally sighed in defeat.

_He's real. _Her last thought before pushing it away, shifting her attention towards the said creature.

"Hello, how do you do?" The yellow creature greeted rather cheerfully despite the irony of the situation. "I'm the one who blasted your moon."

Miki's eyes were completely engrossed with the movement of his yellow tentacles slithering around that her ears barely caught what the creature had said.

_Huh?_

She tore her eyes off the tentacles and shifted her gaze towards the creature's head, which is in the shape of a beach ball along with a permanent grin onto his yellow face that made him closely resemble a smiling emoticon, her mind trying to register the words she barely heard.

_Moon... blasted..._

Miki blinked repeatedly, her eyes widening at the creature before her in realization.

_Oh._

The creature laughed momentarily, his tentacles wiggling around.

_He said, "I'm the one who blasted your moon." He blew up the moon._

Miki froze in her seat when the brutal reality of the situation finally dawned on her.

_He blew up the moon!_

Memories of last month's incident flashed before her eyes ー the bright light nearly burning her eyes, the phone lines being jammed, and witnessing vehicles crashing into houses, people, and onto each other when she peeked outside her window.

Miki visibly trembled in her seat, her vision becoming blurry the more memories flashed before her.

_He caused all of that... that... that monster!_

"I plan to do the same to the Earth next year," the monster casually informed, his voice forcibly bringing her out of her reverie. "Now, I'm your teacher. Nice to meet you!"

_Huh?_

The trembling stopped and Miki found herself dropping the tensed stare.

_What? Teacher? What? WHAT?_

The man in the black suit cleared his throat, forcing Miki once again to shift her gaze towards him.

"I am Karasuma, from the Ministry of Defense," all the loud thoughts that previously clouded Miki's sense of focus completely vanished when the man finally introduced himself.

"What I'm about to tell you all is a state secret, please understand that," the man named Karasuma sighed heavily. "Let me be blunt: I want you to kill this creature for the sake of mankind."

Miki blinked.

_Why?_

She wanted to mentally slap herself for even asking that.

_Idiot. That creature blew up the moon and is planning to do the same thing to Earth the year after. Of course he must be eliminated!_

All the students present let out various confused noises in response.

_Wait. Why us though?_

"Um... excuse me?"

Miki shifted her gaze towards Mimura who had raised his hand. "No offence but is this a joke? Like what is even that thing?" He pointed towards the grinning giant yellow creature. "Is that some kind of alien that came to attack us or something?"

The creature let out offended noises in response. "How rude!" He snapped, his tentacles flailing around. "I'll have you know that I was born and raised on earth. Thank you very much!"

"You can't be serious..." Miki muttered under her breath, not sure what to feel about what he said. _Because the way you said how you're gonna blow up the Earth makes it sound like you've never even set a foot here... Just stop thinking dammit._

"I'm afraid I cannot speak about the particulars, but what he told you is true." Karasuma grimly continued, ignoring how the yellow tentacles kept flailing around ridiculously. "This creature, who damaged the moon, will also destroy the Earth next March."

At his words, Miki hesitantly gave the creature a once over. Save for his height and maybe tentacles, he doesn't look too threatening. Miki could even say that the creature looked almost harmless with that seemingly permanent grin on his face.

He looked harmless enough not to be a world threat.

But then again, he did show up out of nowhere. So there is still that constant fear.

"The world's leaders are the only ones who knew about this. They are exerting considerable effort to kill him behind the scenes... before the world is plunged into panic." Karasuma warned, snapping Miki out of her reverie again.

"In other words, your assignment is to…" he said, reaching inside his blazer pocket.

Then without warning, Karasuma turned and suddenly swung at the yellow creature with, from what Miki could clearly see, a green knife she assumed was made out of rubber (?), from the way it slightly jiggled.

There was a sudden blast of wind and Miki had to squint her eyes to even see what was going on. The yellow creature blurred out and very quickly zoomed to the other side of Karasuma, as the swung knife slashed the air where the creature had originally been a heartbeat earlier.

".. assassinate your teacher!" Karasuma finished, turning to stab the creature.

Still grinning widely, the yellow creature blurred across to the other side of Karasuma again. "But at any rate…" Karasuma growled, turning to stab again. He missed again and this time, the yellow creature was behind him. "...this guy is fast!"

Karasuma turned to slash again, but again hit nothing but air. The creature appeared behind him once more, holding a few random supplies in his tentacles and… plucked at Karasuma's eyebrows..?

Miki blinked.

What.

"Far from killing him, he even had the time to trim my eyebrows...!" Karasuma bent over in anger.

The tentacled creature suddenly turned bright pink with two spots of red above the corners of his grin, somewhat giving off the impression of flushed cheeks.

"Meticulously!" Karasuma turned to slash again.

The wind was beginning to annoy Miki to an extent. So she decided to cover her eyes and waited for it to die down, stubbornly ignoring the slashing sounds and angry grunts.

When the wind did finally die down, Miki uncovered her eyes quickly before she was sure that Karasuma was about to speak again.

"He is a super creature possessing enough power to transform a full moon into a crescent." Karasuma continued as the yellow creature stood beside him, looming over the students. "His maximum speed is Mach 20. If this guy were to seriously run away, we would be helpless until the day of our destruction."

_Well fuck..._

Miki grew more conscious of how quick her heart began beating and how sweaty her hands have become.

"Well, that wouldn't be any fun at all. Which is why I made a proposal to the nations of the world." The yellow creature announced, casually putting away his grooming tools and clicking the case closed.

"I don't want to be killed, but..." he continued, placing a tentacle on Karasuma's shoulders. Karasuma visibly glowered at the yellow creature and started growling under his breath. "If I become the homeroom teacher for Kunugigaoka Junior High School, Class 3-E, then you're welcome to try."

Miki nearly choked.

_WHY?!_

"We don't know his goal," Karasuma growled, still pissed off. "But the government reluctantly consented. Our condition is that he will cause absolutely no harm to you, students."

_Is that supposed to reassure us?!_

Miki held back a long sigh, inwardly groaning when she began to feel another round headache. She leaned on her table, burying her head on both of her palms.

"Our reasons are twofold. As he will come to this classroom every day as a teacher, we can observe him, and above all, with 30 people..." Karasuma trailed off, causing Miki to raise her head and look at him again.

Red meets red once again. Miki gulped nervously when those red eyes levelly stared at everyone's.

"You'll have the chance to kill him from point-blank range!"

_What? Kill? What? WHAT?!_

Miki rashly stood up, her chair nearly falling down. "Whoa time out! TIME OUT! You're going way too fast!" She yelled loudly, her ragged breath following after.

It appears that her sudden outburst had momentarily startled nearly everyone inside the classroom, even the yellow tentacled creature visibly jumped in shock.

Karasuma only stood still, however, calculating red eyes piercing through Miki's as he seemingly waited for her to catch her breath.

Once she had mostly calmed her nerves down and caught her breath, Miki straightened her posture and looked at Karasuma strongly. The intensity of her own crimson eyes is enough to mirror the sharp calculating stare.

"So in summary," Miki took a deep breath, massaging her temples as she tried to keep herself together, "three things happened after I transferred schools. First I repeated my third year cause I wasn't able to take my finals, which is also the reason why I dropped to Class E, and now you're telling me that we, a bunch of fourteen-year-olds, were tasked by the government to assassinate the creature that apparently blew up the moon who, mind you, wanted to be our teacher..?"

Miki quickly caught her breath before she looked at Karasuma. "Am I getting it?"

* * *

Today was stressful.

Although Karasuma had assured the class that the creature is not allowed to inflict harm to them, that the soon presented weapons are only made to do damage on the creature alone, that the government will handle the medical help had a student or two had been injured during an assassination attempt, or that no one outside of those involved in the secret will ever learn about the existence of the tentacled creature nor Class E's involvement in the case as wellー it wouldn't stop the class from throwing into disarray throughout the whole morning.

Thankfully, Karasuma had been patient enough to answer all of the students' questions, which are mostly carried by the more assertive of the class such as Isogai, Kataoka, Maehara, Miki, Nakamura, and Mimura. The six assertive students took turns in asking questions regarding the mission, ranging from how many people are going to be involved, to how the class are going to use the soon provided weapons to eliminate the creature.

The rest of the morning was spent on Karasuma providing the class helpful information he could gather about the tentacled creature, like how he changes colour depending on his mood and what emotion those colours represent for example, with the said creature demonstrating. The creature was then asked to leave the room after Karasuma noticed that his presence alone stresses most of the students out, which is what is keeping them from calming down even if told so.

Karasuma had also assured the students that they wouldn't immediately jump into using the provided weapons on the same day as the assignment was given to them. Instead, he informed them that they would only have a physical test by the afternoon, to assess all of their skills and to figure out what they could work on in the following week. Karasuma then also added that they will have a team of instructors hired to personally teach the class the basic skills and safety for using knives and guns, even though the ones provided to them are practically harmless to humans, and basic combat training.

By the time the class had settled with the situation, it was already lunchtime. But since it was the first day of the month, everyone would have to climb down the mountain to attend the mandatory monthly school assembly. The thought itself was enough to dampen the class' moods, since they knew that they will soon experience the mass discrimination and mockery they've witnessed the former Class E students had to go through at every assembly last school year.

Drained from the stress of being suddenly given a very burdensome task by the government to kill a super creature and save the world, everyone barely had the energy to climb down the mountain. The mountain itself is unfortunately known for its dangerous pathways and being inhabited by wild animals, so the possibility of the students climbing down safely is almost none. This was evident when Okajima somehow got chased by a wild boar that showed up out of nowhere and had him sprinting towards a direction that was clearly not where the exit was. The more physically fit students took it upon themselves to look for Okajima, since he will definitely get in trouble had he not attended the assembly, no matter how justified his excuses are.

Looking for Okajima… was not an easy task at all, even with 7 athletic people trying to track pathways they are sure of he took. They couldn't even track him by voice since Okajima had stopped screaming, which was even more worrisome. After almost 30 minutes, a very worried Isogai and a stressed Kataoka finally found Okajima high on a far treetop, tightly hugging it with his eyes closed as if his life depended on it, no wild boar in sight.

After retrieving Okajima, they decided to look for the rest of the small searching party, hoping that they have not gone too far in the mountain to regroup. Thankfully, said group were all nearby so they had regrouped and went back to the main pathway. Keeping Okajima in the very middle of the pack to make sure he doesn't attract any other wild animal and get chased again, they soon had regrouped with the rest of the class who were all halfway towards the mountain exit. The whole class then began walking down the rest of the pathway, hoping that there wouldn't be any other incidents that would delay their travel time further.

They spoke too soon, unfortunately. Not too long after the whole class regrouped, all of a sudden, a flock of crows appeared from nowhere and hovered over the students for almost a minute. Frightened, Okajima made the inevitable but stupid decision to break into a full sprint towards the far exit, causing the once hovering flock of crows to fly after him instead. Miki, who had been pissed and stressed altogether, screeched in anger and nearly fainted at the idea of having to spend another 30 minutes to look for Okajima again, that she had to be supported by Hayami and Yada so that they can all continue walking down the mountain.

When they all had finally reached the exit, Okajima was already sprawled on the ground, his uniform dirtied and covered by many small tears. Save for Okajima, everyone else in the class, fortunately, managed to make it in one piece, despite the fact that the majority of them were very shaken from the mountain's blatant danger and that some were about to faint from the piled up stress and exhaustion.

Unfortunately, the class had no time to even take a short rest from the long exhausting walk, since the school assembly had already started almost 20 minutes ago. Dreading to be mocked, ridiculed, and laughed at by the whole school, everyone hesitantly walked towards where the school auditorium was located at.

Due to stress and exhaustion from being assigned by the government to kill a super creature and trying to survive the dangers of the mountain on the way down, no one in the class even has the energy to mind the mass sneers and ridicule directed to them for being late nor even mind every speaker's explicit jibe at them. No one in the class even felt like complaining nor reacting badly when the school decided to punish the class for being late.

So instead of climbing back to their classroom after the assembly, all students of Class E were scattered around the school's insanely large garden, proceeding with the punishment of watering the nearly endless flower beds that basically filled the whole garden. Okajima was completely outed from helping, considering how bad his condition was after taking all of the brunts of the mountain's dangers. So the class had him hide from the main school building's view and take enough rest until he had enough energy to stand up again. Even Miki, who was doing a very quick job of watering the flowers and nearly finishing 3 large flower beds on her own, was forced to take a break due to how noticeably stressed and absentminded she has been ever since they first arrived by the exit.

After finally watering all of the flower beds present inside the garden, the class immediately went back to climbing up the dangerous mountain, no time to even take a short rest as Class E wasn't even allowed inside the main campus, the monthly school assembly being only an exception. Luckily, no wild animals found Okajima interesting during the climb, so they were able to climb back to the old building a lot quicker than when they had to climb down.

By the time everyone had arrived inside the classroom, it was already past 1 in the afternoon, exactly 30 minutes before Karasuma returns and will begin the physical assessment.

Tired, stressed, and hungry altogether, the class spent the short remaining lunch break trying to eat their lunches as quickly as they could. As much as they are all tired and drained from all the crap they went through just a few hours, they still needed the energy for the rest of the afternoon.

"Miki-san, please eat slowly…" Mimura pleaded as he tiredly watched Miki wolfing down her rather big lunch almost furiously.

It seemed that Miki had not heard him at all, never lifting her head from her bento as she quickly finished the rest of her lunch. Nakamura, who sat next to Miki, watched her in full concern. "Girl, slow it down. You're gonna choke at this point," she warned.

That didn't work too, unfortunately. As if she couldn't hear anything at all, Miki closed the lid of her bento and grabbed her water bottle, chugging it all down in one go. Miki then proceeded to put all of her things inside her small string bag, which then she shoved under her table.

Leaning back on her seat, with her eyes closed Miki finally let out a long, distressed sigh. Not just one, but five consecutive stressed sighs. Slowly opening her eyes, Miki then blankly stared at the ceiling, grimly taking note of how most of the panels were almost falling out from soaking too much water during the rainy seasons. She briefly wondered if they are allowed to replace the panels themselves because the current ones are too fragile and can cause them harm in the long run. Not just the ceiling panels, but also the floorboards, windows, the shoe lockers by the entrance, and especially their barely functioning desks and chairs. Even the podium and the chalkboard needed maintenance and don't even get her started with the sliding doors, good gracious.

Perhaps Miki could ask her mom for supplies if they are really allowed to fix the building by themselves.

With the final sigh, Miki scratched the back of her head in frustration. "So…" She began, facing the people who she sat with. "Could someone tell me what happened at the assembly again?"

Instead of asking her, everyone else surrounding the combined tables- Mimura, Sugaya, Chiba, Okajima, Nakamura, Yada, Hayami, and Kurahashi - all looked at her worriedly. "Are you okay, Miki?" Sugaya carefully asked.

"Okay?" Miki snorted in reply. "_No one_ is okay, Sugaya," she spat out. "I lost a chunk of today's memories from information overload, Okajima nearly got killed today, and everyone had to go through a lot of shit just this morning alone!"

Another long sigh, Miki ran her hands through her hair. "The only good thing we're getting out of this is that we might become millionaires by the end of the school year," she grumbled, resting her head on her left palm. "But even that's just a mere possibility."

"Can we please not talk about that burdensome assignment?" Okajima loudly whined. "We already spent the entire morning stressing over it. Let's just eat in peace!"

"Yeah, that's a good idea. Let's do that," Mimura quickly butted in, out of fear that whatever Miki will impulsively say next would dampen the mood even worse.

Although her head is still lying somewhere over the sky, Miki could still sense Mimura's discomfort about the topic itself. So she merely nodded along.

"You know, it's a shame that none of us managed to get Yukimura-sensei's contact information now that we knew she had to leave," Yada mentioned. "Not even Isogai-kun or Megu-chan."

"Miki-chan, didn't you once have lunch with sensei?" Kurahashi recalled, opening the lid of her tumbler.

Miki snapped out of her reverie and blinked. "Yeah…" She nodded slowly then frowned. "I totally missed the opportunity to ask her number or even just any social media account she has."

Which Yada had previously mentioned, is indeed a shame. The class only learned that Aguri had resigned from her teaching job when they were being reprimanded by one of the main building teachers earlier for being late to the school assembly. The reason for her leaving was given to them rather vaguely, only stating that it was due to family matters.

Miki found it so overwhelming that they lost a homeroom teacher on the first day of classes, only to get another one on the same day, except much more bizarre and far from… looking human enough, that is.

She doesn't want to doubt the creature's teaching abilities if he's that eager to be their homeroom teacher but… hopefully, he wouldn't move his brightly coloured tentacles excessively during lessons too or else… Miki wouldn't be able to place her focus on the lesson at all.

Miki inwardly cringed at the thought.

Delete.

"You had lunch with Yukimura-sensei?"

Miki quickly exchanged eye contact with Nakamura then nodded. "It was the last Saturday before spring break." She began, leaning towards her table and rested her elbows. "I've always wondered where she goes for lunch. Turns out she's always in the faculty room by herself. So I joined her that day."

Miki paused for a bit, raising her head to face the ceiling as she recollected her thoughts. "We talked for quite a bit," she continued, still facing the ceiling. "I learned that she has a younger sister who's our age.

At that revelation, she closed her eyes and looked down. Sighing, Miki removed her elbows from the table and leaned backwards again, running her hands through her hair.

Miki's eyes quickly swept over her seatmates only to see them staring at her, clearly expecting her to continue.

Another sigh.

"She really adores her sister, I could tell that as much from the way she happily talks about her..." Miki trailed off, blankly staring at the empty tabletop with an unreadable expression on her face.

She clearly remembered how Aguri's face brightly lit up when she began to talk about her younger sister, like how she practically raised her and how proud she is of her.

Aguri spoke with such a bright smile on her already cheery face that it was obvious with how much love she has for her younger sister.

Miki had to admit, she was almost jealous.

"So I guess the moon being vaporized must've worried sensei to the point of quitting her job…" she concluded, her eyes not leaving the table.

Silence fell onto the group not long after that.

"Well that didn't lift the mood at all," Mimura suddenly complained.

"You didn't ask though…" Miki remarked, raising an eyebrow. Shaking her head, she suddenly stood up. "Anyways, we only have about 10 minutes before Karasuma-san comes back," she informed, "So, you all better finish your lunches. I'll collect our string bags before it gets crowded," she pointed towards the back wall, where a long line of identical string bags are hung.

While everyone else resumed eating quietly, Miki walked towards the said back wall. After grabbing her string bag that contains her PE uniform, she began taking the other's bag, eyes scanning for their names written above each bag.

As Miki distributed the bags to their respective owners, said owners were already done eating and were packing their stuff, of course, while thanking Miki after receiving their bags.

It was decided that the boys will change inside the classroom, while the girls will have to go to the laboratory room to change. So once everyone had finished packing, the girls didn't waste a second to leave the classroom.

After quickly changing into her pe uniform, Miki, who pretty much had nothing else to do but to wait for everyone else to finish changing, was leaning on one of the tables and somehow found her eyes trained towards a small figure inside the laboratory.

_Kayano-san is her name, I think… _Miki noted, her eyes not leaving the bright green hair that was tied into high twintails. Kayano was their newest addition to the class, other than their future homeroom teacher.

Miki barely had the time to ponder over their new classmate, with how overwhelming their morning was. But now being able to see how well Kayano was getting along with some of their classmates, with her cheerful smile almost never leaving her face, Miki supposed she doesn't really have anything to worry about the new girl. It also appeared that Kurahashi had taken quite a liking to Kayano and was apparently chatting with her this morning, so that's another one less thing Miki has to worry about.

_Oh my god, she's shorter than Hinano!_ Miki realized after seeing the two girls standing next to each other, chatting happily. She quickly covered the wobbly smile on her face with her palm. _So cute…_

All of a sudden, Miki abruptly stood up, feeling an ominous presence around the room, her smile dropping. She quickly turned towards where most of that unpleasant presence radiated from and clearly saw a suspicious shadow just outside the sliding doors at the back.

As quietly as possible, Miki walked towards the back door, briefly checking if all of the other girls had finished changing uniforms.

Once she neared the door, Miki slammed open the door and bolted from the room.

**_"OKAJIMAAAAAA!"_**

"I was just passing by!" Okajima wailed with a raging Miki hot on his tail.

As Miki chased him through the hallway, Karasuma and a few other adults emerged from the entranceway. Okajima ran past all of them, his screams echoing throughout the once fairly quiet hallway.

"EXCUSE ME!" Miki yelled, running past the adults, her eyes not leaving the back of the soon to be dead pervert who still had the nerve to peep into them despite his supposed stressed state minutes earlier.

When she arrived by the shoe lockers, as Okajima began running outside, Miki briefly halted her chase and quickly opened one of the lockers. Taking out a particularly large dress shoe, she then quickly ran outside the entrance.

Seeing that Okajima hasn't run that far enough, Miki halted by the entrance. Using every force she could muster within that spur of the moment, Miki _threw_ the shoe at the still running figure and continued her chase.

Through some incredibly dumb luck, Okajima decided to stupidly look back at her at that moment, only for his face to smother the cold hard sole of the thrown dress shoe.

Miki quickly caught up to Okajima long before the shoe even bounced off his face, grabbing him by the back of his collar with one hand and catching the shoe by her other hand.

Sighing, Miki stared down the now unconscious form of the perverted bastard in annoyance.

"We really should've left you in the woods by yourself…"

* * *

"That's scary," Mimura blurted out that afternoon, watching Miki take her turn on the 1-minute sit-ups portion of the physical exam.

It's been almost a minute and he nearly lost count of how many sit-ups Miki had already done. Honestly, the girl was giving twice the amount of results compared to most of the class and there are hardly any signs of her getting tired at all.

Mimura was almost convinced that Miki is not a human their age.

Sugaya, who had finished his turn, walked up to him. "So, how's our strong girl doing?"

"Twice as better than most of us, that's for sure…" Mimura replied tiredly, turning to face Sugaya. "How did you do?"

"Not bad, for someone unathletic like me," Sugaya answered with a proud smirk. "I managed to do 17 in a minute," he boasted.

Mimura's eyes widened in surprise at that. "Wow, that's actually good," he praised firstly, before laughing sheepishly. "I only managed to do 12…"

"That's alright. Not all of us are big on sports," Sugaya comforted, his eyes slowly darting towards Miki, "Some of us, however…"

"Are downright terrifying…" Mimura finished, sighing. "Okajima really had the nerve to anger Miki-san of all people."

"Time's up!" Suzume, the woman who was assigned to monitor the small group Miki was in, announced loudly, a timer in one hand.

Miki sat up, lightly panting, brushing back her now drenched fringes off her face with her hand. She accepted the then offered hand towel from Suzume, wiping the sweat off her face, neck, and arms. "How many..?"

"56 sit-ups under one minute," Suzume answered firmly, the corners of her lips curling upwards, clearly impressed.

"Oh wow!" Miki laughed, a proud grin on her face. She then stood up, patting the near nonexistent dirt off her pants. "That's higher than what I was expecting!" She marvelled.

Suzume nodded at her, looking at the small notepad she was carrying in her other hand. "So far, you have the highest results among the class for the sit-up portion," she informed firstly, looking at Miki with a satisfied smile. "While I don't doubt your physical abilities at all, with the way how strong you're already built, you're doing much better than I expected."

Miki grinned widely in response. "I'm a dancer," she proudly declared, "and I have more time to work out these past few weeks. So the trained strength is still fresh and thriving."

"That's good to hear," Suzume replied. "Well then, rest up while you can. We only have a few left to check on, so the next portion of the assessment will come shortly."

"Yes, ma'am!" Miki bowed gratefully to the woman, who nodded back at her before leaving to tend the rest of her classmates.

She spun on her heel and walked towards the nearly frightened Mimura and Sugaya, who both have been quiet ever since her results for the sit-ups portion have been announced.

"Yo~" Miki grinned widely, waving at them as she approached. Because she had rolled the sleeves of her shirt to her shoulders earlier before the assessment began, her toned arms are more prominent with the way she raised one of them.

"Something tells me that you're gonna breeze through the physical exam…" Sugaya just simply told her.

And breeze through she clearly did.

With 56 sit-ups and 43 push-ups, each under one minute, Miki held the highest scores of the two portions in the assessment among the class. For the pull-ups portion, Miki took the second-highest record of 18 pull-ups in a minute, quite behind Okano, a former member of their school's gymnastics team known for her expertise in bar routines, who had 26 pull-ups under a minute. Miki also came in second for the sprinting portion of the assessment, with Maehara hot on her tail, believing that it's impossible to beat Kimura, who is undoubtedly the fastest runner among everyone.

Like what Suzume had previously said, Miki's already strong built made her results less surprising. The shock among the class soon slowly died down as they went through with every portion of the assessment, completely accepting the fact that Miki was just _that_ physically fit.

The wide grin almost never left Miki's face, after blowing off so much steam and frustration, which was soon replaced with an adrenaline rush. It's no wonder she was so energetic and very eager throughout the whole exam that she was giving much better results than she had been expecting.

Miki excitedly bounced in her feet as she eagerly waited for her turn on the flexibility portion of the assessment, nearly breaking into a burst of full laughter when Okajima screamed after being forced to go further with his splits.

"Stop! STOP! IT HURTS!"

Miki snorted loudly when Okajima began screeching incoherently, holding the ground for dear life.

A cackle made Miki turn to the source, only to see Chiba (whose face is nearly turning purple) holding his phone out, a grin on his usually blank face.

Then the loud camera shutter on Chiba's phone nearly made Miki and Chiba himself jump in surprise.

Chiba quietly stared at his phone for a few seconds before his head sheepishly turned towards Miki.

They awkwardly stared at each other in uncomfortable silence, both unmoving.

"Oops." Chiba blurted out, quickly pocketing his phone.

"I didn't see nor hear anything," Miki choked in laughter, forming a wobbly grin on her face. "I promise haha..!"

Chiba hadn't broken the assumed eye contact, his face forcibly blank despite his shoulders shaking in laughter. "Neither did I…" He let himself grin at that. "I also promise… pfft…"

Another round of stare off, but with wobbly smiles and suppressed laughter this time.

_"AHHHHH STOP PLEASE AHHH!"_

"What the hell?!" Miki cackled loudly after seeing Okajima, red-faced even from the back and was being pushed down by Karasuma, of all the adults who were monitoring him, to lower his splits.

Some of her classmates who were all either finished with the said portion of the assessment or were still waiting for their turns, gathered to watch the amusing sight before them, laughing at every near inhumane screech Okajima made.

Miki then noticed that Chiba had suddenly moved and walked around the crowd, probably to get a better view of the suffering menace before them.

She watched in pure amusement when the usually quiet and reserved guy in their group suddenly let out a loud cackle after seeing Okajima's face, almost losing his balance when he threw himself backwards.

Miki decided to see what even kind of face Okajima was making for Chiba, of all people, to laugh _that_ loud, walking towards where he was standing, chuckling softly.

* * *

The yellow tentacled teacher immediately started teaching the next day.

"Ugh… I could never get used to this…" Okajima slumped in his desk that lunch period, groaning in frustration.

Miki sighed in response, pointing a chopstick at him. "At least he actually kept his word that he wouldn't inflict harm onto any of us, " she said, raising an eyebrow. "And if I had to be honest, he's not actually bad at teaching."

Other than his overwhelming presence and his tendencies to pop out of nowhere, the creature had certainly proven himself to be an actually good teacher. He had showcased his vast knowledge with four of the core subjects and actually had made at least more than half of the class learn something from them. Maybe it's the way he brightly discussed his lessons or the way he would always call out a student and asked their opinion regardless whether they have a question or not, but he surely made the lessons more interesting and interactive.

Miki was sure damn impressed.

Scratch that. Ignoring the fact that he's a giant yellow talking squid, he's a pretty damn good teacher.

Also, the creature's interactive teaching methods somehow reminds her of Aguri's, so there's also that nice feeling.

"Might as well pretend he's not a giant talking octopus to get used to it then…" Sugaya sighed.

"I think _that's_ exactly what we can't ignore at all," Mimura sweatdropped.

Miki let out a deep sigh at that, nodding in agreement. _It also doesn't help the fact that he's bright yellow… Talk about being "lowkey" for a state secret…_

She inwardly rolled her eyes at that. _And he even had the audacity to fly overseas for lunch… dear lord._

"Anyways!" Shaking her head, Miki faced Okajima and flashed him an almost teasing grin.

"How are your balls doing?"

Chiba choked and nearly spat out his drink, both Sugaya and Mimura nearly laughed, and Miki just heard Nakamura cackling loudly at the distance.

"Ahhhhh! Don't remind me!" Okajima loudly whined, covering whatever was in between his legs as he crouched under the table.

Miki just grinned wider at that, feeling absolutely no remorse for yesterday's pure menace.

Chiba wiped the water off his mouth with the back of his hand, obviously trying to tone down his laugh into small chuckles. "Gosh I hate myself for laughing at that," he last commented before covering his mouth.

"You're welcome," Miki laughed.

* * *

After school activities for the rest of the week was spent on learning the basics of combat and the proper usage and safety of guns and knives, even if said weapons are almost no different to toys.

Being a dancer, Miki hardly had encountered any struggles with learning choreographed moves, different kinds of knife grips, or stances for shooting, pretty much able to replicate the demonstrations before them after one watch. All Miki really had to do else was to pay attention to details she had missed and correct what needed to be corrected.

Then again, that was just the basics. Being able to do well during lessons means nothing if you couldn't apply it in real life.

Miki had pondered over it one time. Even if she's one of the most physically fit among the class and is very well suited for close combat, no matter how "safe" the environment for assassination attempts the creature and Karasuma have been reminding them, Miki had that underlying feeling that there is still a huge possibility of getting injured during an attempt. It could be as minor as a bruise, or it could cost them an active body.

Miki visibly winced at the thought.

Yeah, no. She doesn't want that and _will never_ let it happen. She might as well play it safe and choose long-range over close combat if it meant protecting the only thing that allows her to move freely.

Miki sighed tiredly as she waited in front of the rundown building that Saturday afternoon. The last day of basics training has come to an end and nearly everyone was exhausted at this point.

Chiba had retired early and left the school grounds almost half an hour ago, with Sugaya, Mimura, and Okajima following after.

So that leaves Miki patiently waiting for Nakamura by the entrance, as the rest of the girls had also left early that day.

"Ah, Yamazaki-san!" A boyish voice called out to her.

Miki spun to see Maehara jogging up to her, a grin on his face. "Maehara-kun," she acknowledged once the guy had stopped before her. "What's up?"

Maehara flashed her another grin. "I was wondering, actually," he began firstly, "If I could take you out this Sunday."

Miki raised an eyebrow at that. "Like on a date?" Maehara's grin remained unchanging, implying his answer.

"What do you think? You down with that?" He asked again.

Miki hummed in deep thought. "Not gonna lie, I would, actually," Maehara quickly perked up at how casually she admitted that, "I mean, you're a pretty chill guy and you're also good looking…"

"So then-"

"But," Miki quickly cut him off before he could assume further, an amused smile on her face, "I'm not really into that two-timing business, so I have to turn it down. Sorry about that!" She patted him reassuringly on the shoulder.

Maehara blinked slowly at her. "Oh…" he managed.

"Oh, but if you still wanna hang out as pals, feel free to hit me up anytime this April," Miki offered instead. "I have a lot of free time this whole month but I might make myself busy again by May, however."

Maehara quickly snapped out of his trance at her words. "Woah are you serious?!"

Miki just smirked at him in response, nodding. "I don't really give my phone number to other people, but I'm usually active on LYNE so you can contact me there if you'd like."

"But no dating," she warned after.

Maehara nodded eagerly at that. "Yes ma'am!"

"Good." Miki grinned in response. "Ah, by the way, just 'Miki' is fine," she quickly mentioned. "I don't answer by my surname nor really use my real name."

"I see," Maehara grinned back in response. "Thanks for the offer still, Miki-san!"

Miki just simply waved him off. "Ehh don't mention it. I'm off-limits but I still don't mind being friends with you."

"If it reassures you, I don't two-time either!" Maehara casually revealed.

"Sure does," Miki smiled in amusement.

Maehara suddenly looked back inside the entrance and saw Nakamura emerging from the hallways. "Well, I gotta go now. You're probably waiting for someone and I don't want to interfere."

"Yeah, I'll see you around," Miki nodded at him, giving him a small wave when he began walking away.

Maehara waved back at her, albeit more enthusiastically.

Once he was far enough from hearing distance, Miki let out another tired sigh, running her hands through her hair. Suddenly, but not surprisingly, a pair of familiar arms snaked around her waist, as if it became a daily thing already.

"So," Nakamura's teasing tone never failed to expose whatever the kind of ideas she was having, "what business does Maehara-kun have with our resident off-limits tough girl?"

Miki let out an amused chuckle.

"A backfired date offer."

* * *

The next Monday, an hour before the first period starts, Isogai and Kataoka had gathered the class for a meeting.

"I think you're all underestimating how fast sensei could be if his estimated maximum speed is legitimately Mach 20," Miki commented after hearing the class representatives' plan for their first assassination attempt.

Nakamura nudged her at that. "Hey, don't be like that. It could actually work for all we know."

"I'm just saying," Miki shrugged in reply.

"I think Miki-san has a point, actually. It's not really a concrete plan if you think about it," Isogai calmly admitted. "But with our current level of skills in shooting, it's the best we could come up with at this point."

"Yeah, that's true," Miki agreed. "We also can't forget that there's a possibility he might make a misstep and break off his continuous speed, even for a few seconds," she added. "Because no matter how fast you are, outside forces can still ruin your momentum."

"And there's a good chance we might hit him in those few seconds cause we're raining pellets on him!" Maehara exclaimed. "Nice one, Miki-san!" He passionately gave her a thumbs up with a wink.

Miki sweatdropped at that, inwardly cringing. _Dude just can't be more casual about it, my god… _She awkwardly returned the thumbs up to him.

She shook her head, redirecting her attention back to Isogai. "So, when are we gonna do that?"

Isogai and Kataoka then exchanged nearly uneasy looks, the former scratching his head sheepishly.

"We were thinking of today, actually."

Miki had to double-check if she heard that wrong.

_What?_

* * *

**A/N:**

**GUYS I'M SO SORRY IT TOOK ME SO LONG TO UPDATE!**

**With Art Uni, writer's block, and the fact that I only have my phone now to type on, it was really difficult for me to get back into the writing mood I used to have back then when I still have a laptop to properly type on.**

**I badly want to write this fic and I was hoping that I could be more consistent with the future chapters.**

**Hopefully, I'd soon get used to typing on my phone so I can write much quicker.**

**This chapter is one HUGE mess, that's for sure. So I would like to apologize again some of y'all got stressed reading that long series of paragraphs in the middle of the chapter.**

**Believe me, writing that also stressed the hell out of me lmao**

**So this finally marks the end of Miki's arc, with like half of the kids already introduced too at that! We will begin the canon timeline and a new arc by the next chapter.**

**Again, no beta no edit, cause we're feral like that lmao**

**It's 3AM as I am writing this, but I will still give my reply to reviews UwU**

**ashleymarie: afsjsakkahs thank you so much for reading! T_T I am so sorry that it took me this long to update but I hope I hadn't made you wait too long.**

**TwelveTurquiose12: Lol the name is just a coincidence turned reference. I actually forgot that there was a connection when I was writing that chapter. If Chiba was on point in that chapter, then I deeply apologize for what I did to him in this one lol. YASS RIKI! And yes to the girls interacting! Jungyoon is a soft boi and Miki is soft for him, so they're soft for each other UwU. Miki may be feral but she's not gonna tolerate any bullshit in the class, that's for sure lol. She needs a good sleep and a quiet day for herself, she's been going through so much stress lately :(**

**Thank you for reading and please review if you'd like to! :)**

**\- 松原文子**


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